After the triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Ferrari - AF Corse team is preparing for the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Monza, held at Brianza’s Temple of Speed, set to host the world championship event for a third consecutive year.
When the Italian race gets the green light on Sunday 9 July, 28 days will have passed since the win in France when the number 51 499P, driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, put Prancing Horse back on the top step of the podium at the Circuit de la Sarthe, 58 years on. The race had also ended with the fastest lap and fifth place for the other Maranello Hypercar, the number 50 crewed by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, who had also claimed the Hyperpole.
The 5.793-kilometre track at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza features three chicanes and five turns, including the iconic Parabolica named after Michele Alboreto. It is a track that allows some of the season’s most blistering speeds and one that places particular stress on the braking systems of the hybrid Hypercars in an endurance race often hindered by high summer temperatures. The 499Ps were the protagonists of two days of testing at Monza last February, after having had their first contact with the track in October 2022.
Thanks to the Le Mans points haul, the Ferrari team arrives at the Italian event holding second spot in the Manufacturers’ standings, trailing Toyota by 18 points; in the Drivers’ standings Pier Guidi-Calado-Giovinazzi lie in second, and Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen fourth, 25 and 40 points behind the leaders respectively, with two dates still to run in the World Endurance Championship calendar after Monza: the 6 Hours of Fuji and the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
The programme. On Friday, 7 July, the Hypercars will be the protagonists of two free practice sessions from 11.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 4.40 p.m. to 6.10 p.m. On Saturday, after Free Practice 3 from 10.45 a.m. to 11.45 a.m. will be the qualifying session from 3.30 p.m. to 3.45 p.m., to determine the starting grid for the 6 Hours, scheduled to kick off at 12.30 p.m. on Sunday, 9 July (local times). 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.