After a convincing start to the season in the World Endurance Championship, the Ferrari 499Ps will be looking to strengthen their results at the iconic Spa-Francorchamps track, which will stage round three of the 2023 calendar in eight days’ time. Fresh off the back of two podiums and a pole position in the two most recent outings at Sebring and Portimão, the Ferrari - AF Corse team crews are called upon to build on the results achieved so far and will hope to make further progress in terms of performance and reliability.
The particular circuit layout, which runs through the Ardennes forest - home to some legendary Prancing Horse triumphs - will offer important feedback in the build-up to the most eagerly awaited race of the year, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. From this point of view, the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps will allow the teams to do battle on a less atypical track than those of Florida and Portugal, whose sectors - in particular the third - have some similar technical traits to the French one.
The crews of the 499P numbers 50 and 51 will take the start with similar ambitions but different situations in the standings. Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, currently in second spot in the overall standings, go in search of continuity of results, trying to narrow the gap from the Toyotas. Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, meanwhile, will be aiming for a race without any of the unexpected mishaps that hampered their potential in the opening season events. They are further bolstered by last year’s triumph for Pier Guidi and Calado in the LMGTE Pro class, which enabled them to start a comeback through the rankings which eventually resulted in the world championship title at the end of the season.
The team took advantage of the two-week break between the Portuguese and Belgian races to analyse the data from the 6 Hours of Portimão, with the aim of continuing the process of growth and development of both the 499P and the team itself.