The Italian producer closed out its first season within the Hypercar class with a third-place outcome within the Bahrain 8 Hours, with the #50 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen securing the best-of-the-rest spot behind the dominant Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH automobiles.
Ferrari didn’t have the velocity to maintain up with the Toyotas or the Jota Porsche 963 LMDh out entrance because the race reached two-thirds distance, however a penalty for Jota’s Antonio Felix da Costa put the lead Ferrari crew able to grab third.
Nielsen got here below extreme stress from da Costa’s team-mate Will Stevens within the closing phases, however stored the Jota driver behind to clinch Ferrari’s sixth podium in seven rounds in 2023.
Talking after the race, Ferrari’s sportscar technical director Ferdinando Cannizzo credited the group for attaining an unlikely podium within the season finale, explaining the way it was capable of compensate for the automotive’s weaknesses on observe.
“We by no means hand over,” stated Cannizzo. “It was a really troublesome race for us. It was powerful as a result of we weren’t the quickest automotive, not the second-fastest.
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“However we’re even prouder for the outcomes as a result of we had been capable of play with the technique in a approach that we get the rostrum.
“We won’t get nervous, we are going to hold calm. [We] actually have a look at the final lap of the race [to see] what we are able to do to seize the rostrum with a automotive which was not the quickest.
“You noticed on observe how simply we have now been overtook typically.
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Ferrari’s #50 crew joined the Toyota drivers on the rostrum
“So we are attempting to know [by] working laborious in these two days how we are able to handle our tempo, our set-up, our pitstops, our power, every little thing in a approach that may give us the chance to beat the opposite guys despite the fact that they had been sooner than us on single lap in a single stint.”
Cannizzo felt Ferrari was the strongest of any group when it got here to tyre degradation, a results of the additional effort it put in for the Bahrain finale after a disappointing displaying at Fuji in September.
“I feel we had been one of the best automotive in tyre degradation as a result of when you see the hint, we had been capable of handle correctly with very, very constant laptimes from lap one to the final lap of the stint, even the second stint,” he stated.
“If we had a distinct set-up, we ready it for as we speak. We labored actually laborious as a result of we knew that this race was [going to be] very, very troublesome for us.
“So we did work laborious to know how we might even enhance and handle a observe like that the place the asphalt is de facto aggressive for the tyres to to not have any degradation.
“Our automobiles had been superb on the tyres. This was undoubtedly because of the truth how we managed the tyres and the way we arrange the automotive, that was a bit bit totally different than the opposite races.”
The 2 Ferraris got here to blows within the penultimate hour as Alessandro Pier Guidi and Fuoco battled for place after their respective pitstops, with the latter popping out on high of their scrap.
The #51 499P of Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi ultimately pale to sixth, behind Jota’s Porsche in addition to the #6 Porsche Penske 963.
Photograph by: Ferrari
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen
A suspension concern was discovered to have been the basis reason behind Pier Guidi’s mysterious drop in tempo within the closing a part of the race.
“We had a sort of concern on the rear dampers on automotive #51,” revealed Cannizzo. “We nonetheless have to know however in some unspecified time in the future the shock absorbers had been shedding the traits.
“We’ve got to analyse however I feel it was on the rear axle, so we do not know but as a result of [we have] not opened the automotive, however it was some drawback associated to the shock absorber that occurred there.
“Possibly we misplaced the fuel, I do not know. However he was not capable of get the correct grip particularly on the rear. He was struggling.”