Ferrari eyes Le Mans hypercar

Ferrari still has its eyes on a return to the top class of the World Endurance Championship, and it could do it with a road-based Le Mans Hypercar.

The Italian manufacturer has been a participant in the rulemaking process to replace the LMP1 division since early 2018, and then suggested back in February that it could build a car for the new Lmp2-based LMDH category announced the previous month. There was, however, one caveat: it had to be able to build its own chassis.

The rulemakers – the FIA, WEC promoter the Automobile Club de l’ouest, and IMSA in North America – didn’t acquiesce to Ferrari’s request. They didn’t divert from the principle that an LMDH car has to be built around a P2 chassis when they released the first draft of the new rules in May. But that hasn’t drawn a line under Ferrari’s interest in a return to the top flight of sportscar racing for the first time since customer teams raced its 333SP prototype and the F40LM/GTE GT car (above) at the Le Mans 24 Hours in the 1990s.

Ferrari GT racing boss Antonello Coletta revealed at the Spa WEC round last weekend that “all the doors are still open”.

“The interest in the top class is still there and we are scanning all the opportunities, LMDH and LMH,” he explained. “The most important question is whether we can have a link with a road car. Having our own chassis is a must, and we will see in the future if it is possible to have a new supercar.”

Asked if Ferrari was looking at sets of LMH rules, those for road-based machinery and lookalike prototypes,

Coletta replied in the affirmative.

Coletta stressed that the coronavirus pandemic had put a hold on the decisionmaking process. “After COVID we stopped everything because we had other priorities,” he explained, “but I hope to restart discussions after the

Le Mans 24 Hours [in September].”