Ferrari will be quick to tell you that the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans is their first attempt to win the race overall since 1973. What they might be less happy to tell you is how their original program ended: the 330 P4 line beaten by the Ford GTs, the 512 line beaten by the Porsche 917s, and the 312PBs beaten by Matra-Simca. The last eight years of the brand's golden age were a disappointment, and the new 499P program's job was to erase that history by taking the brand's tenth overall win and re-igniting the link between Ferrari and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
24 hours later, the mission has been accomplished.
Ferrari's Antonio Fuoco took pole for the race by a comfortable margin, but the team had no major pace advantage in the race itself. In the opening hours, all five major factory Hypercar programs led the race overall for one stretch or another. As the Porsches suffered mechanical failures, the Peugeots crashed, and the Cadillacs faded, a two-horse race between Ferrari and Toyota emerged. Both lost a bullet overnight, with the No. 7 Toyota retiring after a crash caused by a pile-up entering in a slow zone and the No. 50 Ferrari falling off the pace during a half-hour leak repair.
That left a showdown between the No. 51 Ferrari and the No. 8 Toyota. While the Ferrari team was able to stretch that lead out at times, Toyota's quick drivers and a small issue re-starting the Ferrari after one key stop kept the cars within reach of one another. With four hours to go, an on-track battle for the overall win seemed inevitable. Then, a mistake: an off at Arnage for Ryo Hirakawa in the Toyota. Suddenly, the Ferrari had a three minute lead and breathing room.
The Ferrari team, which had not extensively endurance tested and had already seen a mechanical issue on one car overnight, had just one more scare left. The No. 51 failed to re-fire again on the final stop of the day, leaving a tense 30 seconds of waiting. The car eventually fired, and the margin for error built up by the Toyota's mistake made the stall a non-issue. Ferrari would go on to win Le Mans for the first time since 1965.
Drivers Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovanazzi have the honor of bringing the brand back to glory. Pier Guidi and Calado have spent the bulk of the past decade in Ferrari's factory GTE-Pro cars, which have been run by the same AF Corse team that runs this prototype program. Giovanazzi, meanwhile, was a Ferrari Formula 1 prospect whose open wheel career stalled at Sauber and ultimately ended at the end of last season. Giovanazzi may have never raced in Rosso Corsa in a grand prix, but this moment is bigger than any achievement the team has earned in Formula 1 since its last set of championships.
The No. 8 Toyota finished second, two minutes short of Toyota's sixth straight overall win. Cadillacs from Chip Ganassi Racing finished third and fourth, marking a successful race for the brand that saw all three of its cars finish on debut. After up-and-down days, the top finishers from Peugeot and Porsche finished eighth and ninth, respectively.
In LMP2, Inter Europol Competition overcame a unique day of hardships to grab the other prototype class win. Lead driver Fabio Scherer had his foot run over on the pit lane early, but he ran all of his stints anyway and won multiple on-track battles with the Team WRT car that finished second in class. The car's radio failed in the closing hours, but the team was able to successfully hand signal Scherer in for his final stop. The result is a win for Scherer, Jakub Smiechowski, and Albert Costa.
In GTE-Am, Corvette Racing started the day with a damper issue that forced a repair in the opening hour and left the team's lone entry two laps down. A methodical charge from Ben Keating, Nicholas Varrone, and Nicky Catsburg allowed the team to slowly recover over the next 18 hours, and by sunrise the trio was back in contention. The team went on to win by two full minutes in the last-ever race at Le Mans for GTE cars, the C8.R, and the Corvette Racing brand as we know it.
The hundredth anniversary 24 Hours of Le Mans may be over, but the Hypercar convergence era has just begun. Half a season of competitive racing remains for these cars in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship, including much-hyped events at Monza and the Petit Le Mans. Next season, this race gets even more competitive: Lamborghini, Alpine, and BMW have all announced plans to enter the race with LMDh-based prototypes, and 2023 24 Hours of Daytona winners Acura could still find a way onto that grid, too. The top class in the 2024 race will reach at least 20 entries, if not 30. With five competitive programs, this was the most competitive 24 hour classic in decades. Next year, the race is adding at least three more.
