Ferrari secured two victories in the 2024 World Endurance Championship, one of those coming at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
This season marks just the second season since the Italian giants made their return to the top level of endurance racing after a 50-year hiatus, entering the Hypercar class of the WEC with their Ferrari 499P.
The team finished second in the Manufacturers’ Championship in 2023 behind Toyota as they achieved six podiums across the season.
While Toyota won six of the eight races last year, Ferrari only grabbed, but it was arguably the most significant of them all as the team took victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The No. 51 499P piloted by James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi secured the Maranello outfit’s first win at Le Mans since 1965 in what was a fairly unexpected result.
Antonio Fuoco says Ferrari had ‘even more pressure’ to replicate their 2023 Le Mans victory this year
Coming into the 2024 event, Ferrari now had expectations from the fans and pundits to be one of the frontrunners and challenge for victory again.
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In a challenging race with constantly changing weather conditions, Ferrari’s No. 50 machine, driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, came out victorious as the Maranello outfit secured their second consecutive Le Mans win.
Speaking on WEC’s Meet The Legends documentary series, Fuoco explained how the team ‘perfectly handled’ the pressure to deliver the win for their devoted fans.
“This year for some reason the pressure seemed to be even more because obviously we had to confirm what we did last year, so we have to handle a lot more pressure,” he said.
“However in general, I think we managed it very well as drivers, but above all the team handled everything perfectly from start to finish, especially because it was a very difficult race where the conditions kept changing all the time, so it was hard to make the right decision.
“But I think all the guys did a great job.”
Ferrari finished behind Toyota and Porsche in the standings in 2024
Ferrari secured one other victory in 2024 through their satellite No. 83 car, as Yifei Ye, Robert Shwartzman and Robert Kubica won the Lone Star Le Mans in Austin.
Scoring two other podiums at Spa and COTA, Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen went into the 8 Hours of Bahrain with a chance of winning the drivers’ championship – albeit it was a slim chance given that the Porsche No. 6 trio of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor were 35 points ahead going into the event.
While the No. 6 had a difficult race as they came home 10th, Ferrari faired no better as the No. 50 finished outside the points in 11th, handing the drivers’ title to Porsche.
The No. 51 Ferrari was second until they were hit with a two-lap penalty for using two tyres more than the maximum amount allowed over a weekend, demoting them to 14th.
With a disappointing end to the year, Ferrari finished third in the Manufacturers’ Championship. Porsche were denied the title by Toyota by just two points as the Japanese outfit’s No. 8 took victory in Bahrain.