Weekend Preview: Ferrari at 24 Hours of Nürburgring

The legendary 24 Hours of Nürburgring will take place at the “Green Hell”, where Frikadelli Racing Team’s Ferrari 296 GT3 will attempt to defend its title from last year. The weekend will also feature the Super GT Japan at Suzuka, the IMSA championship in Detroit, and round two of the Italian Gran Turismo Sprint Championship at Imola.

Intercontinental GT Challenge. For the first time, the historic 24 Hours of Nürburgring will be included in the prestigious international GT3 endurance series, featuring the 12 Hours of Bathurst, the 24 Hours of Spa, and the 8 Hours of Indianapolis.

The German race takes place over the entire 25.3 km length of the track known as the “Green Hell”, which includes both the GP circuit and the Nordschleife. Ferrari arrives as the reigning champion, having triumphed in 2023 with Frikadelli Racing Team’s 296 GT3 piloted by Nicky Catsburg, Earl Bamber, David Pittard, and Felipe Fernandez Laser, which broke the all-time distance record by covering 162 laps.

For 2024, the German team will line up again with its Ferrari 296 GT3 number 1 and the returning driver Fernandez Laser. The German knows the track very well, making his tenth consecutive appearance in the race. Compatriots Luca Ludwig and Daniel Keilwitz will join him, along with Argentine Nicolas Varrone, last year’s winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in GTE Am.

The entry list for the 24 Hours of Nürburgring numbers an impressive 130 cars in 23 classes. The Maranello manufacturer’s car has 24 rivals in the GT3 class, known here as SP9.

The weekend programme includes qualifying from Thursday to Friday. The warm-up is at 12:40 p.m. on Saturday, while the race kicks off at 4 p.m. and ends at the same time on Sunday.

Super GT Japan. The Super GT Japan championship returns this weekend with a three-hour endurance race for its third round at Suzuka. The 5,807-metre-long Japanese track is one of the most spectacular and technical because of the variety of its curves. Two Ferrari 296 GT3s will compete in the GT300 class, determined to achieve a great result. Kei Cozzolino and Frenchwoman Lilou Wadoux, a Prancing Horse official driver, will be in Ponos Racing’s number 45, while Yoshiaki Katayama and Roberto Merhi Muntan will crew the Uni-Robo Bluegrass team’s number 6.

IMSA. Conquest Racing makes its debut in the IMSA SportsCar Championship GTD Pro category for Ferrari in Saturday’s Detroit Grand Prix on the streets of the Motor City.

Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra joins team regular Albert Costa in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 in the 100-minute race in the first-ever IMSA race on the street circuit.

With the GTD class taking the weekend off, Conquest stepped up a class to give Ferrari the opportunity to take on America’s top-two automakers in their own backyard, running where the city hosted Formula 1 from 1982 through 1988.

Serra was part of the GTD Pro winning lineup in the season-opening Daytona 24 Hours, and rejoined Risi Competizione in finishing second in Pro in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Costa and Manny Franco are running the full schedule for Conquest Racing in GTD. They are currently seventh in the standings, with their best finish third in the Daytona 24 Hours. They finished 15th in the most recent event at Laguna Seca.

Ferrari has a winning history at the Belle Isle Circuit, a park on an island in the Detroit River that formerly held races beginning in 1992. The ALMS raced there in 2007-08, with Ferrari taking the 2007 victory with Mika Salo and Jaime Melo driving a Ferrari F430GT for Risi Competizione. The Grand-Am Series hosted races in 2012 and 2013, with Ferrari running in the unified IMSA SportsCar Championship competing there from 2014 through 2019. Scuderia Corsa was the GTD winner of the inaugural event, with Alessandro Balzan and

Jeff Westphal sharing the team’s Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.

“I am very happy to be returning to racing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, and for the first time with Conquest Racing” said Daniel Serra. “I have previously had the opportunity to work with Eric Bachelart back in 2016, and I am excited to work together again. We are putting in the work to be very well prepared for the weekend in Detroit, and doing all we can in hopes of achieving a great result”.

The weekend opens with a pair of practice sessions on Friday, followed by GTD Pro qualifying at 4:40 p.m. (all times ET). The race takes the green flag at 3:10 p.m. on Saturday, and will be broadcast live on USA and Peacock beginning at 3 p.m.

Campionato italiano GT Sprint.Imola’s Autodromo Enzo and Dino Ferrari will host round two of the sprint series this weekend. Fifty-five cars are expected, with 23 in the GT3 class and 32 in the GT Cup.

Three Ferrari 296 GT3s will compete in the main class, GT3 Pro: Easy Race team’s number 22 with Enzo Trulli and Lorenzo Bontempelli, AF Corse’s number 52 with Jasin Ferati and Luka Nurmi, and the Piacenza-based team’s number 88 again with Daniele Di Amato and Timur Boguslavskiy, who sit in fourth place, nine points behind the leader.

Three Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020s will line up in the GT3 Pro-Am class: Luigi Coluccio and Vito Postiglione in the number 23 for Best Lap, newcomers Paolo Ruberti and American Thor Haugen in Pellin Racing’s number 3, and Leonardo Colavita and Giorgio Maggi in Double TT Racing’s number 75.

Stefano Marazzi and Simone Buttarelli, in Rossocorsa’s Ferrari 296 GT3 number 74, will try to improve on their third-place finish in the GT3 Am class standings.

In the GT Cup, restricted to single-marque cars, four Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo cars will race in the first Pro-Am division: two are from Best Lap, Lorenzo Pegoraro and Simone Patrinicola in the number 111, and Mattia Bucci and Filippo Croccolino in the number 178. Double TT Racing also fields the number 177 with Belgian Gilles Renmans, and MERTEL Motorsport enters the number 180 with Tommaso Lovati and Mauro Trentin. Emiliano Pierantoni and Diego Di Fabio will drive the number 103 for Easy Race.

In the Am, two crews represent Best Lap: Gianluca Carboni and Ivan Mari are in the number 205 car, and Giovanni Naldi and Gianluigi Simonelli are in the number 218. Pinetti Motorsport also comes with two cars: the number 229 with Giovanni Stefanin and Simone Vullo, and the number 280 with Victor Briselli and Emma Segattini. Completing the Ferrari line-up are AF Corse’s number 250 with Lorenzo Casè and Edoardo Borelli, Double TT Racing’s number 277 with Mark Adrian Locke and Gianmarco Ercoli, and MERTEL Motorsport’s number 281 with Michele La Marca and Marco Verzelli.

The season’s second weekend will open on Friday, with the first free practice session from 10:30 to 11:20 a.m. (GT3) and from 11:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. (GT Cup). The second session will run from 4:30 to 5:20 p.m. (GT3) and 5:30 to 6:20 p.m. (GT Cup). Saturday’s programme includes two official practice sessions from 9:50 to 10:30 a.m. (GT3) and from 11:30 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. (GT CUP). GT3 Race-1 will follow at 4:20 p.m. and the first GT CUP race at 6:40 p.m. On Sunday, GT3 Race-2 and the second GT Cup race will take place at 2:20 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., respectively.

(All times are local.)