Ferrari 499Ps at Fuji for round six of FIA WEC

The Prancing Horse Hypercars will be back under the spotlight in Japan for the 6 Hours of Fuji, round six of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship, set for Sunday, 10 September.

Two months after the Monza race, when the number 50 Ferrari finished runner-up, the World Endurance Championship resumes with the season’s penultimate event. The 499Ps will be put through their paces at the Fuji International Speedway, the track on the slopes of the Japanese volcano of the same name, a 4.563-kilometre circuit where these Maranello-brand cars are yet to appear.

The layout of the track, featuring a long straight and alternating wide-radius bends such as the famous “100 R”, with others taken at low speeds, means the teams need to do a lot of fine-tuning to optimise the car’s performance in radically different sectors.

After five podiums in as many races, including a triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Ferrari – AF Corse team aims to win crucial points for its title challenge. The Prancing Horse is second in the Manufacturers' standings, 26 points behind Toyota (victory and pole position at the 6 Hours of Fuji and the 8 Hours of Bahrain are worth 65 points in total). In the Drivers’ standings, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, who share the 499P number 51, are third, ahead of their number 50 Hypercar teammates Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen.

The two pairings lie 23 and 30 points respectively behind the championship leaders.

The programme. Two free practice sessions will run on Friday, 8 September, from 11 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and from 3.30 to 5 p.m.; on Saturday the 9th, after the third free practice session from 10.20 to 11.20 a.m., qualifying from 3.30 to 3.45 p.m. decides the starting grid for the 6 Hours, which kicks off on Sunday the 10th at 11 a.m. (all times are local). 

The qualifying and the race can be followed live from the drivers' perspective via the on-board cameras of the number 50 and 51 Hypercars, available on the official “Ferrari” YouTube channel.