By the time you read this, the World Endurance Championship will be 100 races old. Once centered on the mega-expensive, mega-fast LMP1 hybrids, it's all about the Hypercars now. These are purpose-built, closed-top race cars, with some of the most complex hybrid systems you'll find outside of Formula 1, clad in bodywork that could give the Batmobile a run for its money. These Hypercars are designed to last the distance. During the 24 hours of Le Mans this year, the winning car covered 3,276 miles (5,273 km); for context, an F1 race is usually 190 miles (305 km), and at Monza this year, the race lasted little more than an hour. Here's another difference with F1: When it comes to endurance racing, Ferrari has been winning a lot.
In fact, it's taken victory at Le Mans for three years in a row, scoring a hat trick after 50 years away from this corner of the sport. This year has been even better: Ferrari leads the manufacturer's championship and the driver's championship with the #51 factory car. Its closest rival for the driver's title is another 83 Ferrari, this one entered as a privateer car by the AF Corsa team. When the invite arrived to join the team for its race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to watch it in action and find out the key to that success.
"It has been an amazing challenge for us because after 50 years, it was not simple to restart in the pinnacle of motorsport," said Antonello Coletta, head of Ferrari's endurance racing program. Eighteen months after the car was greenlit, it was racing at Sebring in early 2023, a notoriously bumpy WWII bomber base in Florida that is as hard a test on a race car as any. Later that year, the 499P won Le Mans on its first try.
