Ferrari reveals retro hypercar livery for 2025 WEC

Ferrari has unveiled a new retro livery for the two factory 499P Le Mans Hypercars ahead of its 2025 World Endurance Championship campaign.

The Italian manufacturer has adopted blood red for the two AF Corse-run works cars in what Ferrari sportscar racing boss Antonello Coletta labelled a “reminder of the past”.

It stated on the launch of its 2025 programme on Friday that the darker shade of red that before “reinterprets the colours seen on Ferrari race cars from past decades”.

Coletta pointed out that the new red mimicked that used on on its works 488 GTE contenders in 2019 when Ferrari was celebrating the 70th anniversary of its 1949 victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours with Luigi Chinetti and Lord Selsdon (Peter Mitchell-Thomson) driving a 166MM.

But he stressed that Ferrari is not celebrating a particular anniversary this time.

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen, #51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi (Photo by: Ferrari)

Ferrari’s livery changes for the third season of competition for the 499P include new stripes in the Modena yellow of its home town.

These now run along the top surface of the sidepods rather than down their sides.

A requirement to run a new LED light panel, which will be able to show the race position of each car, was the catalyst for the change.

They are located at the front of each sidepod, which has meant moving the race numbers back to where the stripes ran down the car in 2024.

The yellow harks back to the 312PB Group 6 racer of the early 1970s, Ferrari’s last factory prototype racer prior to the 50-year hiatus that ended with the arrival of the 499P LMH in 2023.

A 312PB bearing the Modena yellow won the Sebring 12 Hours in 1972 with Mario Andretti and Jacky Ickx driving, before Ickx and Brian Redman won at the Monza and Nurburgring World Championship for Makes events the following year in the same colours.

The new 499P colour scheme also incorporates matte accents that align with the livery run on its Formula 1 cars, which will be unveiled in its latest form at the F1 75 Live event at the 02 Arena on 18 February.

Ferrari is going into the 2025 season with an unchanged driver line-up: the two crews of Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina in #50 and Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi in #51 will race together for a third consecutive season.

Phil Hanson has joined Kubica and Ye in the customer AF entry in place of Shwartzman, who has moved to IndyCar with Prema Racing.

The WEC season kicks off with the Qatar 1812Km at the Lusail International Circuit on 28 February, with the official pre-season prologue test taking place at the same venue on 21/22 February.

Photos from the Ferrari AF Corse launch

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

Gary Watkins

WEC

Ferrari

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