It was June 10th 1973, 4 p.m. when the chequered flag waved at the last 24 Hours of Le Mans in which Ferrari entered in the top class. 49 years later, Ferrari have unveiled the first details of the Le Mans Hypercar that will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2023. That’s right, Scuderia Ferrari will compete in the 24 hours of LeMans come 2023 after 50 years. The car, which will begin its first development tests in the coming weeks, shows strong design references to the stylistic features that distinguish the models in the Prancing Horse range.
Ferrari officially announced its partnership with AF Corse to collaborate in the management of the team that will work alongside Competizioni GT in the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) programme as the Prancing Horse prepares to enter the new top class of the FIA WEC World Championship from 2023. The team will compete in the championship as “Ferrari – AF Corse”, continuing their winning streak that started in the FIA GT 2006 with the F430 GT2 that, in its debut season, produced the team, their Driver’s and Constructors’ title. The partnership between Ferrari and AF Corse has created mostly all of the GT wins of recent years as well as all of those achieved in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) since its inception in 2012. Six team and drivers’ titles for AF Corse in the LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am classes, five Constructors’ titles for Ferrari crowned with three triumphs at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Antonello Coletta, Head of Ferrari Attività Sportive GT stated, “Today’s announcement is an important step towards the debut of our LMH in the World Endurance Championship. We are happy to have a reliable partner like AF Corse with us for this project. Ferrari and AF Corse have enjoyed a solid relationship for a long time, as you can see in the FIA WEC, where we run our official 488 GTEs together with the Piacenza-based team. We look forward to continuing together on a journey as rewarding as the years of racing cooperation to date.”
Furthermore, the AF Corse team owner Amato Ferrari had this to say: “We are proud of this announcement. It is the crowning of a dream and recognition of the great effort made over the years. Our partnership with Ferrari is a winning one that began in 2006, and I am delighted to continue it in the LMH project. We have immediately kicked off with great enthusiasm aiming to raise the bar even further and to be ready for this new challenge”.
With just over a year to go until the centenary edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2023, the countdown to the appointment with history, fifty years after that last participation, has officially begun.
