A date destined to go down in Prancing Horse history. On Saturday 29 October, during the gala evening held on the occasion of the Ferrari Finali Mondiali at Imola’s Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, the 499P was unveiled, the hypercar that will mark the Maranello manufacturer’s return to the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship from the 2023 season. The competition car made its maiden public appearance driven in full electric mode, to reach the stage from which the top management of the company, founded by Enzo Ferrari, outlined their aims for the near future.
John Elkann, Ferrari Executive Chairman: “The 499 P sees us return to compete for outright victory in the WEC series. When we decided to commit to this project, we embarked on a path of innovation and development, faithful to our tradition that sees the track as the ideal terrain to push the boundaries of cutting-edge technological solutions, solutions that in time will be transferred to our road cars. We enter this challenge with humility, but conscious of a history that has taken us to over 20 world endurance titles and 9 overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans”.
Antonello Coletta, Head of Ferrari Attività Sportive GT: “The 499P is a dream come true. Today is an important moment for all the people who have worked so hard on this project over the past two years. We wanted to pay homage to our history, with many references, both large and small, to a past made up of successes and titles. We do so however, looking ahead, creating a manifesto of our commitment to the World Endurance Championship. The 499P is a prototype that is decidedly Ferrari, in the fullest sense of the term, and it gives us an enormous thrill to finally show it to our clients and to the many enthusiasts of the marque”.
Ferdinando Cannizzo, Head of Ferrari GT Track Car Development: “For the whole team and myself, this is a really thrilling moment. We know that we have a huge responsibility. We have designed and engineered a car that is brand new and particularly complex in every aspect. This unprecedented challenge motivated everyone into all-encompassing, all-sharing collaboration involving every department of our company and our technical partners. Starting from a blank sheet of paper was a source of unique and continuous motivation in order to find effective solutions to guarantee the 499P's performance and reliability. From the very first shakedown to the first race, we have planned a very intense development programme, both on the test bench and on the track, which has given us some interesting feedback. The work of synthesis that awaits us over the coming weeks, and which will see us involved in further track testing, is the most important for fine-tuning and the final integration of all the systems. We still have a lot of kilometres to go, but the team is aware of the importance of the project and will continue to show commitment, passion, maturity and great professionalism”.