Ferrari has announced that it will return to the top class of global endurance racing with a Le Mans Hypercar programme, set for debut in 2023.
The Italian manufacturer is one of the most successful in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, scoring nine overall victories between 1949 and 1965.
It marks a return to prototype racing for the Scuderia, which has not entered a factory top class effort at Le Mans since 1973, when a 312PB finished second in the hands of Arturo Merzario and Carlos Pace.
Since then, Ferrari has achieved great success at Le Mans in GT machinery, most recently winning GTE Pro in 2019 with James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari becomes the fourth manufacturer to officially announce a Hypercar programme, following Toyota, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus and Peugeot.
Audi, Porsche and Acura have announced LMDh programmes, with more expected to follow in the coming months.
“In over 70 years of racing, on tracks all over the world, we led our closed-wheel cars to victory by exploring cutting-edge technological solutions: innovations that arise from the track and make every road car produced in Maranello extraordinary,” Ferrari President John Elkann said.
“With the new Le Mans Hypercar programme, Ferrari once again asserts its sporting commitment and determination to be a protagonist in the major global motorsport events”.
This is really positive news for endurance car racing. Not only is it another manufacturer team joining in, but the draw of competing against Ferrari may encourage other factory teams, particularly among other marques with a history in sportscars, such as Mazda, Nissan, BMW, and maybe even McLaren to try and recapture the past glories earnd with cars like the 787B, R89 and R92, V12LMR, and F1. It’d be wonderful to see a new descendant of the Jaguar XJR9 and its relatives, but the way the company is going I don’t think that’s at all likely.