Sportscar365’s Manufacturer of the Year

Manufacturer of the Year – Ferrari

When you look at the year in terms of championship titles, Ferrari underachieved compared to previous seasons. It didn’t win any titles in the final year of GTE and was out of the hunt in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS until the last race.

But the history books will nonetheless look back favorably on 2023 for the Italian manufacturer because of its 24-hour race victories at Le Mans and the Nürburgring.

Those landmark results, occurring in the first year for the Ferrari 499P and the Ferrari 296 GT3 respectively, were hugely significant for the storylines they produced.

Of course, the Le Mans victory came in the context of a controversial pre-event Balance of Performance change that infuriated Toyota. But Ferrari still needed to beat the Japanese manufacturer on reliability and strategy: two areas in which it has become the reference point in top-level prototypes courtesy of its experience.

The No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse crew of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi resisted the best efforts of the No. 8 Toyota lineup and successfully nursed some late-race electrical issues to take a win that made global sporting headlines.

Three weeks earlier at the Nürburgring 24, Frikadelli Racing Team produced one of the event’s greatest shocks by ending a two-decade domination from German brands.

This was much more of a privateer effort than Le Mans and the motley driver crew of David Pittard, Earl Bamber, Nicky Catsburg and Felipe Fernandez Laser reflected that.

However, the factory-developed Ferrari 296 GT3 was a potent weapon in the right hands and ended up taking a dominant win despite an ailing damper towards the end.

Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars Ferdinando Cannizzo was on-site for both of those wins and he was understandably very proud to have seen two of his main technical projects, in LMH and GT3, produce breakthrough results so early in their lifespans.

Honorable Mentions

***The GT3 manufacturer with the most success in 2023 was undoubtedly Mercedes-AMG, which not only took the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli title but also the Fanatec GT World Challenge manufacturer’s championship for consecutive seasons. The German brand was additionally also awarded the FIA GT World Cup, courtesy of Raffaele Marciello’s win on the streets of Macau.

***Toyota’s impressive global motorsport operation had another successful year with titles being won by each of its main departments in Japan, North America and Europe. The European arm added another FIA World Endurance Championship in Hypercar, while the Japanese division prevailed in both SUPER GT classes. Over in the U.S., Vasser Sullivan claimed a dominant IMSA GTD Pro championship for Toyota Racing Development’s factory Lexus program.

***The second year for the BMW M4 GT3 was significantly better than the first, yielding plenty of wins including ROWE Racing’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa triumph. BMW also enjoyed strength across multiple teams, especially in GT3 where it took multiple victories in IGTC competition and won the WeatherTech Championship GTD title with Paul Miller Racing. It also notched up seven NLS wins including five from Walkenhorst Motorsport. The new GT4 car also racked up the wins, while its LMDh prototype showed potential.