Weekend preview: Ferrari Aims for First at 12 Hours of Sebring

One year after Ferrari claimed a double podium at the 12 Hours of Sebring, seven Prancing Horse racecars are entered for the 2025 edition with the goal of taking home first place.

The historic race concludes the 36 Hours of Florida run for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship after the series completed the 24 Hours of Daytona in January. Sebring is the second of five endurance races in 2025 for teams challenging for the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, but just the second of 10 season-long events for the GTD Pro and GTD classes.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the 2025 GT Winter Series concludes this weekend in Barcelona with a special six-hour endurance event, where the 296 Challenge of Rossocorsa Racing will also be on the grid.

GTD Pro. After a top-10 finish at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January, DragonSpeed returns as Ferrari’s entry in the WeatherTech Championship GTD Pro class. 

The quartet of Albert Costa, Davide Rigon, Miguel Molina and Thomas Neubauer ran the twice-around-the-clock event, and the driver lineup welcomes a new face at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Giacomo Altoe joins Costa and factory driver Rigon for driving duties at the 3.74-mile circuit and it was announced last month that Altoe would partner with Costa for the remaining IMSA rounds this year. Altoe was part of Conquest Racing’s GTD lineup at Daytona and his quick pace elevated him to the GTD Pro seat. 

DragonSpeed is one of 11 entries in the GTD Pro class at Sebring.

GTD. Six Prancing Horses will try their hand at the GTD victory in Sebring, with a total of 20 entries in class.

Triarsi Competizione is on the grid with two Ferrari 296 GT3s in similar fashion to their participation at the 24 Hours of Daytona. Sheena Monk, Stevan McAleer and Mike Skeen are set to pilot the No. 021, while Onofrio Triarsi, Charles Scardina, and factory driver Alessio Rovera will drive the No. 023. 

AF Corse, Cetilar Racing, Conquest Racing and Inception Racing have all entered the enduro with one car apiece. 

For AF Corse – the highest finishing Ferrari at Daytona – factory driver Alessandro Pier Giudi, Simon Mann and factory driver Lilou Wadoux Ducellier will contest for a second top-10 finish to start the season. 

Entered for Cetilar Racing is the trio of Lorenzo Patrese, Giorgio Sernagiotto and factory driver Antonio Fuoco.

Manny Franco, a victor in Ferrari Challenge North America season-opener this past weekend at Sonoma Raceway, will join factory driver Daniel Serra and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli behind the wheel for Conquest Racing. 

Meanwhile, Inception Racing has enlisted Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff and Ollie Millroy to tackle the bumps of Sebring.

Winning History. Since the first sports car race at Sebring in 1950, Ferrari established itself as one of the winningest manufacturers at the circuit. The Italian brand has found itself in victory lane 12 times overall and more than 35 times in-class. 

The 1960s and 1970s were prime years for Ferrari, recording four straight overall wins from 1961 to 1964 and scoring the notable first win for a race with a rolling start in 1970. 

The most recent class victory came in 2016 at the hands of Alessandro Balzan and Christina Nielsen – en route to their season-long WeatherTech Champion GTD championship – alongside co-driver Jeff Segal. 

Most recently in 2024, however, Ferrari solidly landed on both the GTD Pro and GTD class podiums in the runner-up position, and the brand aims for one place higher in 2025. 

The programme. The 2025 12 Hours of Sebring busily gets underway with a morning, afternoon and night practice on Thursday, March 13. Qualifying takes place the following day at 11:25 a.m. ET for the GTD class and at 11:50 a.m. for the GTD Pro class. The once-around-the-clock race then goes green on Saturday at 10:10 a.m. (local time).

The race will stream live flag-to-flag on Peacock TV in the United States and on the IMSA YouTube channel for international viewers.

GT Winter Series. The second and final endurance round of the GT Winter Series takes place at the Barcelona circuit. As with the first endurance event in Portimão last February, the Barcelona six-hour race will not count towards the championship, which has already crowned its overall and Cup 1 winners, Cristiano Maciel and Rui Aguas in the AF Corse Ferrari. In Cup 1, the category dedicated to single-marque cars, the only Ferrari on the track will be the number 80, with Angelo Fontana, Niccolò Schirò, and Bence Valint, a champion at the Finali Mondiali last October, at the steering wheel.

The three qualifying sessions will take place on Saturday, 15 March from 12.15 p.m., while the six-hour race is set to start on Sunday, 16 March at 10.40 a.m. (local time).