After a long wait, the 499P has arrived, the new Le Mans Hypercar with which Ferrari will face the FIA WEC endurance world championship in the premier class starting from 2023, and it is a name that evokes the history of the Prancing Horse.
In the livery design with which the 499P will debut in the next 1000 Miglia di Sebring (USA), the famous color scheme already introduced in the 312 P of the seventies has been taken up, which also visually underlines the connection with a story interrupted 50 years ago, but always present in the essence of the brand.
For this reason, number 50 will be one of the two with which the cars from Maranello will be entered in the world championship, while the other will be number 51, one of the most successful ever.
The 499P, which was officially presented to the press during the Ferrari Finali Mondiali taking place at the Imola racetrack, is a hybrid car with a twin-turbo V6 engine derived from the Ferrari 296 combined with an electric motor that develops a total of 680 hp.
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Ferrari 499P, the hypercar of Maranello
"It is a dream that becomes reality - said Antonello Coletta, Head of Ferrari Sport Activities GT -.
We wanted to pay homage to our history, with many small and big references to a past made up of successes and titles. In doing so, however, we have looked ahead, creating a manifesto of our commitment to world endurance. A project that starts from afar and is now taking shape. It will be a test bed for developing cutting-edge technological solutions to be adopted on the road cars produced in Maranello ".
All the corporate realities were involved in the definition of the 499P, drawing on the universe of technical, professional and human excellence that characterize the Maranello company.
Overall, more than 100 people worked on the project under the careful technical direction of Ferdinando Cannizzo, head of the GT and Sport racing car development body.
"The hybrid powertrain of the 499P - explained Cannizzo - combines a heat engine, located in a central-rear position, with an electric motor, on the front axle.
The ICE unit - Internal Combustion Engine - has a maximum power on the ground, limited by the regulation, of 500 kW (680 hp) and is derived from the V6 biturbo road family.
The internal combustion engine, which shares the architecture of the engine mounted on the 296 GT3, compared to the latter has undergone a profound review by the Maranello technicians, aimed both at developing ad hoc solutions for the prototype and at the overall lightening.
Among the specific characteristics of the "V" six-cylinder of the 499P - he added - the fact that the drive unit is of the load-bearing type and therefore performs a valuable structural function, compared to the versions fitted to the racing touring cars, where the engine is mounted on the chassis of the car ". The second" soul "of the hybrid powerplant is represented by the ERS - Energy Recovery System - with a maximum power of 200 kW (272 Hp),
The new Ferrari 499P, whose lines were finalized with the involvement of the Ferrari Style Center, under the direction of Flavio Manzoni, enhances the car's technical and aerodynamics, through simple and sinuous shapes, an explicit expression of the Ferrari DNA.
Made from a carbon fiber monocoque frame, under the "dress" the Ferrari 499P is characterized by solutions that represent the avant-garde in the field of technologies applied to motorsport.
The geometry of the suspension, with overlapping triangles of the "push-rod" type, makes it possible to achieve qualities of stiffness that translate into outstanding performance, which is evident both at the highest absolute speeds and when traveling through curves.
The electronic sector borrows and moves further the
experience gained in competitions with GT cars.
No less sophisticated is the braking system, which integrates a brake-by-wire system necessary to allow the recovery of the kinetic energy during braking by the electric front axle and developed to combine precision and speed of response with reliability and durability. complementary aspects whose synthesis is one of the keys to success of endurance races.
The debut of the 499P in the Fia World Endurance Championship will be on March 17, 2023 at Sebring in the United States.
