The 499Ps at COTA for the sixth round of the FIA WEC

The Prancing Horse’s Hypercars will be back in action at Circuit of The Americas – COTA for the sixth act of the FIA World Endurance Championship, scheduled for the weekend of 1 September. The third-to-last world championship event – six hours in length – will feature the 499P number 50 and 51 of the Ferrari – AF Corse team, driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen, winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, and Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi. Completing the representation of the cars from the Maranello manufacturer will be the 499P number 83, entered by the AF Corse team and brought to the race by official Ferrari drivers Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman, along with Robert Kubica. The green light for the Lone Star Le Mans in Texas (USA) is scheduled for Sunday, 1 September at 1 p.m. (local time).

The race. After undergoing a test on the Texas track at the end of July, the Le Mans Hypercars return to the circuit, measuring 5.513 kilometres and including 20 turns, for the first official test. On the world championship calendar, COTA will once again host the American event four years after the last appearance, and for the first time in the Hypercar era, which currently represents the top class of endurance.

The situation. For the 499Ps of the official team, it is a return to racing 49 days after the previous world championship round, the 6 Hours of São Paulo, which ended with fifth and sixth place finishes for crews 51 and 50, respectively. After the first five seasonal events – contested in Qatar, Italy, Belgium, France, and Brazil – in the drivers’ standings, Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen occupy second place with 98 points (19 points behind the leaders), while Pier Guidi-Calado-Giovinazzi are eighth (with a gap of 59 points). In the manufacturers’ standings, meanwhile, Ferrari holds third with 109 points (17 behind Porsche).

The crew of the 499P number 83, Ye-Shwarzman-Kubica (11th overall at São Paulo and second in the class reserved for independent teams), are 11th in the drivers’ standings, and AF Corse occupies third place in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams.

The programme. Friday, 30 August, will feature the first two free practice sessions, each lasting 90 minutes, starting at 12.40 p.m. and 5.10 p.m. On Saturday, 31 August, after the third free practice session from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., the qualifying sessions are scheduled to start at 3.40 p.m., followed by the Hyperpole at 4 p.m. The six-hour Lone Star Le Mans will start on Sunday, 1 September at 1 p.m. (local time).