This is Le Mans! Behind Ferrari's great success

One year of work, 24 hours to win: this is Le Mans. It’s difficult to understand it for people who don’t usually follow endurance racing: I’ve heard people calling it “a big jumble of cars” or saying, “24 hours of racing… how boring”. Yet, it only needs to be watched once to understand that it’s so much more than that and not boring at all. Even if someone dominated the race for 23 hours and 35 seconds, nothing can be taken for granted until the checkered flag is waved.

Le Mans isn’t just a race, it’s the Race, and this year more than ever, as it was the centenary, and many car manufacturers came back to race in the highest class. Many surprised us, like Peugeot improving its reliability, the LMDh being much more competitive thanks to the BOP (which finally equalized the cars and didn’t favor any of them) and a Ferrari that in one year created the car that would be the winning one at La Sarthe.

It was July 2022 when those drivers jumped for the first time at the wheel of the Ferrari LMH, and they managed to snatch the pole position, win and complete the fastest lap 11 months after. Ferrari conquered Le Mans in just 11 months. Many criticized them, “you hit the track too late” they said, “the others are way further with their development”, but as we can all see it only takes great work and enough passion to reach the top, nothing else.

Just a few moments before the race start all we can hear is “Forza Ferrari” inside the Ferrari - AF Corse box. It’s a shout of hope from that family, as it’s more than just a team, who has the Cavallino Rampante painted on its heart. The hope of doing good, of finishing on at least one of those three podium steps. The tension is high, higher than it’s ever been, but so is the support for Ferrari. “We will try” says someone who hopes for the win but doesn’t want to say it out loud, for superstition or disappointment at the debut.

Photo copyright Ferrari

342 were the laps that Antonio, Alessandro and James’ car was able to do. 342 laps of adrenaline, sweat, tears, heartbeats, of that fear in everyone’s eyes as every yellow flag was waved, at every pit stop that the mechanics made…

Both Antonio and Alessandro, when they were kids, dreamed of being racing drivers. They were just two kids that imagined racing on that red Italian car. Now those two little kids are grown up and their names are written on top of that Ferrari, together with James’ one, they’re forever written in the history of motorsport, both Italian and worldwide, and of the biggest endurance race in the world.

When we interviewed Giovinazzi, he told us that a new car and a new team had a lot of work to do and the #51 season hadn’t started with the right foot, while the sister car, the number #50, had already proved from Sebring, with the pole position, that the Ferrari LMH would’ve been an opponent to beat even for the current champion, Toyota. It was a challenging beginning of the year for Alessandro, Antonio and James, but as everyone learns from their mistakes the goal was to improve race by race and Spa had already brought some joy with a third place for them.

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Giovinazzi’s goal for the season? Le Mans victory! And he was able to succeed. The Italian driver had been training for months for the iconic race and already told us “I can’t wait to go back”. For him winning in Le Mans was a redemption and he got to prove how talented of a driver he is but silently as he raised that trophy high, he made a statement that is worth more than a thousand words.

Alessandro, who already made us feel a bunch of emotions with Ferrari during the last few years, doesn’t face any race with the mindset of losing it. He is three times World Champion and now three times winner of the 24h of Le Mans. In an old magazine Alessandro described getting to Le Mans like a mix of emotions, as even the last inch of the last lap can compromise the whole race and it only takes a flat tire to blow up all the work done. “The pressure is high” Alessandro said, referring to the last few laps of the 2021 edition, and it must’ve been even higher this year around but nothing can beat that checkered flag feeling.

There are only 23 minutes left and the #51 needs to do one last splash of fuel; someone, who clearly doesn’t know Le Mans, says “that’s it, they won”. Then, as if it heard those words, the #51 car seemed to not start anymore. The seconds passed and time seemed to go in slow motion with the 499P sitting still in the pit lane, as if it was tired of all those emotions. Pier Guidi keeps on pressing all those buttons on the wheel, the mechanics around the car talk to each other to see if they can help with something while every single grandstand falls silent trying to understand what was happenning, petrified as they came all the way from around the world to see Ferrari win.

The cameras are all on James Calado, inside the box, who has his eyes full of tears and covers his face as he doesn’t want to watch what could be the end of it all. The British driver defined racing in Le Mans as the most mentally draining thing he has ever done and clearly in that moment his mind was full of stress, just like everyone’s in the garage.

Finally, after stopping everyone’s heartbeats for a moment that felt like a whole day, the #51 starts again and the Tifosi burst into joyful and reassuring screams as Pier Guidi joins back the track, and the chasing Toyota is still behind.

Then, with the checkered flag being waved at the pit wall, the 499P crossed the finish line: that 10th overall win finally came, after 58 years - 50 away from the highest class - but there it was. It came and everyone cherished it as it deserved.

James and Antonio hugged, with the Italian one screaming at the top of his lungs to let off that 24 hours steam. Then they rushed to the finish line to wait for their teammate’s arrival, with their arms high as if to say “we made it!”.

James and Alessandro had already won twice at Le Mans in the GTE Pro category but this time the feeling is different as there is the consciousness of having written a page in the history of motorsport as Pier Guidi said, “writing a small page of Ferrari history feels pretty unique.”

Obviously, there’s bitterness in the air as the #50 couldn’t fight for the podium, due to a little rock that broke the ERS system, even though it had proven to have the pace needed to do it.

People who say “It’s only a race” don’t stand a chance anymore, as everyone saw the cry of joy in the Ferrari box and the looks of disappointment in Toyota’s workers who had been the ones celebrating on that top step of the podium in the last five years.

Photo copyright FIAWEC