Ferrari today unveiled a little more of its upcoming Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) racecar with a new teaser image. Now testing on track at Fiorano, the car will run in the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship as of 2023.
“This is a very exciting moment, eagerly awaited both by the people who worked on this project and Ferrari fans,” said Antonello Coletta, Head of Ferrari Attività Sportive GT. “Being able to touch the result of many months of work, planning, and simulations gives us new energy and motivation. We are proud of what we have achieved, and although the LMH’s masking during testing hides the car’s volumes and styling, I think it is undeniably recognizable as a Ferrari.”
Although the image is still bathed in darkness, making it hard to make out fine details, what can be seen looks rather like the competing cars that have already been unveiled, like the Porsche 963 and the BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh racer. It will actually differ from them, though.
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Whereas the majority of cars we’ve seen so far will abide by LMDh and GTP class specifications—which have a large number of spec parts provided by suppliers like Multimatic and Dallara—Ferrari is building its car to LMH spec.
The similarity of regulations means the cars will be competing against one another for overall victories, but LMH cars are allowed to be based on road cars or custom-made chassis. Speaking to Autocar, Coletta said that Ferrari would be making its own chassis, engine, gearbox, suspension, and electronics for their Le Mans competitor.
“Our dream is to win,” Coletta told the outlet. “But, unfortunately, that’ll be the dream of the other competitors! First of all, we need the best car and the best solutions, but the target from the first race is the victory, of course.”
Although the rules allow an LMH racer to be based on a roadgoing hypercar, the Ferrari exec admits that it won’t share much in common with any of the brand’s current road cars. That’s not to say it never will, though.
“It’s a good laboratory, and we have good experience from the past,” said Coletta, adding that “[I’m] sure my staff has ideas that we can put on the car that will be good for the future [road cars]”.
But that won’t be until after the car races. Ferrari said it has been developing it for 18 months and anticipates that it will make its competition debut in March 2023, ahead of its first return to Le Mans in nearly 60 years. In the meantime, it will continue its intensive development program with drivers from the Competizioni GT pool.
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