Each of the Ferrari 499Ps that flashed past the chequered flag almost line astern in positions one to three at the Qatar World Endurance Championship curtain-raiser would have been a worthy winner. They were separated by less than three seconds after 10 hours of racing and any one of them might have come out on top in the dash to the finish after the final pitstops. But there was one thing that was never in doubt in the desert on Friday, and that was a Ferrari victory.
The Italian manufacturer’s Le Mans Hypercar was dominant around the Lusail International Circuit. So dominant that one of the 499Ps was able to fight back from no fewer than four penalties to take the final podium spot. No one else was genuinely in the game over the course of the Qatar 1812Km, though the two manufacturers closest to Ferrari on pace didn’t do themselves any favours.
The internecine battle at Ferrari went the way of Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina at the end of a race that reached the 10-hour cut-off 17 laps short of the scheduled 335. They claimed a first WEC victory outside of Le Mans for one of the factory AF Corse-run Hypercar entries by just 2.3 seconds from the customer AF car shared by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson. Just 0.3s further back in third was the second works 499P of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
As dominant as they were, at least the three Ferraris made a race of it over the final three quarters of an hour, the gaps between them ever narrowing. When Fuoco leapfrogged Kubica in the pits with 44 minutes to go because he stopped four laps later and therefore required less fuel to go to the finish, he emerged with a lead of just under six seconds. Pier Guidi, meanwhile, trailed the yellow Ferrari by 13s.
The trio of Ferraris were on different tyre strategies, or at least sitting on Michelins of different age and state of wear. Each was running the hard compound on the left and the medium on the right, pretty much the default combination in Qatar this year once the temperatures had peaked a couple of hours or so after the 14:00 start time. Fuoco had left side hards that were now into their third stint, while all four of the tyres under Kubica were being tripled. Pier Guidi, who had taken over from Calado at the final stop, was given a couple new hards on the left as Ferrari as AF opted to split the strategies across the two works cars.
Pier Guidi was the man on the move, as he should have been with the fresher rubber on each corner of his Ferrari, but arguably Kubica was the star. He edged towards the leader, who was being told from his pit to look after the hard-used left front in the final laps. The customer Ferrari, really a kind of satellite works entry that doesn’t score manufacturers’ points, got the gap down to under three seconds with 10 or so minutes to go.
Kubica’s problem, however, was that he now had Pier Guidi on his tail: his attention had to switch from looking forwards to behind. He spent the last half dozen laps fighting a rear-guard action as he successfully strived to hang on to second position. Had the customer car not had its mirrors full of the works car behind it, could it have done something about the one in front? That will never be known. The same applies to what Calado and co could have done without their string of penalties for various on-track and pitlane misdemeanours.
Calado had no doubt that his car, that Giovinazzi had put on pole, was the fastest of the Ferraris at Qatar. That wasn’t borne out by the averages, however. It was nip and tuck between the two works cars: on a 75-lap average it was the winning car that came out on top by a shade over 0.08s. The customer car was a further 0.1s back. The time lost to the four penalties — two drive-throughs and two stop-and-holds - was mostly mitigated by a quartet of safety cars that interrupted this race. But it wasn’t ideal in terms of track position: after the final full neutralisation, Pier Guidi was down in seventh while the other two Italian cars sat at the top of the leaderboard.
That Pier Guidi might have snatched it at the end proves that the 499P was in a league of its own at Qatar. The car had the edge on one-lap pace, was at least as good as anyone else in looking after its tyres - not a big factor on the ultra-smooth Lusail surface - and was quick on the all-important out-laps in these days of no tyre heaters.
The role of the Balance of Performance at any WEC race is always difficult to interpret, but it needs to be pointed out that the Ferrari had shed 38kg since Qatar last year
BMW had the second-quickest car at in Qatar. The fastest of its two M Hybrid V8 LMDhs shared by Dries Vanthoor, Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello claimed the best of the rest spot with fourth at the death ahead of the two Toyotas, after spending much of the race making up for a setback in the opening hour. Magnussen haemorrhaged time and positions after the speed limiter stuck on after a first quick-fire Full Course Yellow virtual safety car - and needed a new nose after contact as it was bundled down the field. Vanthoor was penalised later for contact with Fuoco, but fourth was as good as it was going to get.
The Jota Cadillac squad would have been in the mix for that position with one or both of its cars, but for an early-race implosion. The two V-Series.R LMDhs were running 1-2 in the crocodile at the first safety car when Alex Lynn ran into the back of Jenson Button between the penultimate and final corners as the course vehicle prepared to pull in. The team and drivers, unsurprisingly, chose not to discuss the incident for which Lynn was adjudged to be at blame and penalised.
Why was Ferrari in the ascendent at Qatar, and by some margin? Ferrari has made much of its ‘no stone unturned’ approach to its WEC programme since it notched up Le Mans win number two last June. A world championship title is now its big goal. Nielsen touched on it post-race when he said: “Thank you very much to the guys for all the work they put in over the winter.”
But it would be simplistic to suggest that Ferrari has stolen a march on its Hypercar rivals through hard graft. Every one has been hard at it since the curtain came down on the 2024 campaign.
The role of the Balance of Performance at any WEC race is always difficult to interpret, but it needs to be pointed out that the Ferrari had shed 38kg since Qatar last year. The minimum weight allowed to the 499P was set lower than at any time since the start of 2024. Its 1037kg limit was comparable with the 1043kg and 1041kg at which it ran at Le Mans and Imola respectively last year, one race it won and one it should have won. Weight takes its toll around the 3.67 miles of the Lusail circuit with its proliferation of medium to high-speed corners. Just ask Porsche. A manufacturer that dominated last year, like Ferrari this time blocking out the podium positions, was nowhere this time around. The 963 LMDh was running heavier and quite simply wasn’t a contender.
“Ferrari were just quicker, just better on pace,” was how BMW M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos summed it up. “There wasn’t a lot we could do.”
