Ferrari has revealed the hybrid hypercar which will contest the Le Mans 24 Hours and World Endurance Championship in 2023.
The famous Italian team is re-entering the top level of sportscar racing for the first time in 50 years with the car dubbed the 499P.
Ferrari dominated sports car racing in the 1950s and 1960s, but struggles in the early 1970s prompted Enzo Ferrari to focus solely on F1 from 1974 onwards.
It was an era made famous by Steve McQueen’s film “Le Mans”, and was depicted more recently in the 2019 movie “Ford vs Ferrari”.
Ferrari has not won at Le Mans, the most famous sportscar racing event, since 1965.
“The 499 P sees us embark on a path of innovation and development faithful to our tradition,” Ferrari president John Elkann said.
The 499P’s predominantly red livery with yellow trimming is reminiscent of the Ferraris entered in their last iteration of sports car racing.
The 499P name follows a naming tradition that dates back to the earliest Ferraris, mixing the cubic centimetre capacity of one cylinder of the car’s three-litre V6 twin-turbo powerplant, along with the ‘P’ for prototype.
WEC’s decision to open its top category up to hypercars has attracted back a number of big manufacturers, with Peugeot, Porsche and Cadillac all joining Ferrari next year.
Ferrari’s 499P will be four-wheel drive, with a twin-turbo-charged V6 engine and an electric power unit delivering 500kW of power.