Top Rookie Leclerc Relishes “Special” Ferrari Hypercar Outing

Arthur Leclerc has described his day at the wheel of Ferrari’s 499P during the FIA World Endurance Championship’s post-season rookie test in Bahrain as “special” as he ended up fastest of the newcomers across Sunday’s test.

The Monegasque driver, younger brother of Ferrari Formula 1 racer Charles Leclerc, was speaking after posting a best time of 1:50.460 at the end of the afternoon session to come within 0.055 seconds of overall pacesetter Jules Gounon for Alpine.

Leclerc currently serves as a Ferrari F1 development driver and raced a 296 GT3 in the Italian GT Championship this year on top of his main program in the European Le Mans Series for LMP2 squad Panis Racing.

“It was a good day,” Leclerc told reporters. “First to familiarize myself with the car was key, because it is completely different from what I am used to. But I think I did pretty well and the team gave me the right support to do so. I was feeling quite good.

“It feels special to be here in the Hypercar that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and for that to be a Ferrari, which has been my dream since I was young, it’s even a better feeling.”

On his best lap time, Leclerc added: “I was struggling with traffic, so it was a bit tricky to do a clean lap, but I think the car is thanks to the amazing work of Ferrari. It’s not the first year of the car and you can feel this behind the wheel.

“It’s a good car that gives you a lot of confidence to push, so I just had to extract it.”

Leclerc said that the weight of the Hypercar compared to the LMP2 and single-seater machinery he has been used to, combined with the 499P’s straight line speed performance, made for an eye-opening experience, particularly as he said he was unable to do much in the way of advance preparation in the simulator.

He was however able to call on the advice of Nicklas Nielsen, who prepared the No. 50 car for him in the morning session, and Antonio Fuoco, also a Ferrari F1 simulator driver and a close friend of Leclerc’s elder brother Charles.

“It’s a completely different way of driving,” Leclerc explained. “Small mistakes can cost a lot in Hypercar. You can miss the braking point by two metres and end up ten metres wide! Things are a little bit heavy and costly. It’s quite a challenge to drive this car.

“I think I progressed a lot during the day. It’s a huge amount of information to deal with in one day. Everything is completely different and the last sessions are where you extract most from the car. It was quite good. I am happy with the job I did.”

Speaking during last month’s Ferrari Finali Mondiali, the marque’s global head of endurance Antonello Coletta ruled out Leclerc being part of Ferrari’s three-car Hypercar roster as early as 2025, with his focus likely to remain in GTs.

But in Bahrain, Leclerc reiterated his desire to eventually race the 499P in the WEC.

“Obviously I want to one day drive the Hypercar – whether that’s next year, in two years, three years, whatever,” he said.

“Racing in Hypercar would be my dream. I would love to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans and even more so with Ferrari, which is the team I have dreamed about since I was young.”

Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars Ferdinando Cannizzo clarified that Leclerc was not on new tires for his final runs, as he used Mediums that were “at least 15-20 laps old”.

But Cannizzo said he was impressed not only by the performance of Leclerc but also Ferrari factory GT driver Thomas Neubauer, who also drove one of the two works 499Ps for the first time on Sunday, and Phil Hanson, who has been confirmed to be switching to the third-string No. 83 AF Corse car for 2025.

“All the drivers we ran did a good job today,” said Cannizzo. “It was not easy for them to jump in and learn the car, which is quite different to what they drove before. Hanson was the one who already knew the Hypercar, so he was closest but in a different platform, so it was still a new discovery for him.

“Also for us it was interesting because whenever you change drivers, you see different perspectives. Quite an interesting day.”

Davey Euwema contributed to this report