Ferrari to return to Le Mans?

Cellos88GT

Cellos88GT

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Rumors are swirling that Ferrari may be contemplating a return to Le Mans racing as soon as 2015. Germany's Auto Motor und Sport reports the Italian automaker may apply the development of a new 1.6-liter turbocharged V6 engine for Formula One to an LMP1 car for Le Mans, and have it ready for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in two years. This follows hints made by Scuderia Ferrari CEO Stefano Domenicali last month that the newly developed F1 engine could be used for "some interesting projects."

Ferrari has a history of success in Le Mans racing, though it hasn't won the big endurance outright since 1965. The image above captures the exact moment when the No. 21 car of Masten Gregory and Jochen Rindt crossed the finish line that year to win the race. That win was the last of six consecutive outright victories before the infamous arrival of the Ford GT40 in 1966. Despite never reaching the top of the podium again, Ferrari's nine wins still stand as the third most overall by a manufacturer behind Porsche (16) and Audi (11).

If Ferrari does return to Le Mans in 2015, the LMP1 class will suddenly be teaming with worthy competitors for Audi, which has dominated the race since 2000. After Peugeot's exit from the sport in early 2012, Toyota entered the race in 2012 and has continued to develop its TS030 Hybrid LMP1 car. Porsche, meanwhile, is well into developing a new LMP1 car that will first compete in next year's race.
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src: http://www.autoblog.com/2013/08/01/ferrari-return-24-hours-of-le-mans/

I am ecstatic at the prospect of this! :w00t:
 
It's probably a bargaining chip like the 637 CART car back in the 1980s, but if it happens... Audi vs Toyota vs Porsche vs Ferrari at Le Mans is going to be a mouthwatering prospect. :D
 
What a brilliant bit of news.

Please let this be real.
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
It's probably a bargaining chip like the 637 CART car back in the 1980s, but if it happens... Audi vs Toyota vs Porsche vs Ferrari at Le Mans is going to be a mouthwatering prospect. :D
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There was a 20-year gap between the 312P(B) and 333 SP so we're about due for a new sports prototype from the Scuderia.
 
It reminded me of this, for some reason:
 
I don't wanna see attention diverted from F1 and then having a fail car at both series. The cars have been anything but brilliant these past few years in F1, and trying to compete in another series just makes me feel like they will get worse.
 
mpicco said:
I don't wanna see attention diverted from F1 and then having a fail car at both series. The cars have been anything but brilliant these past few years in F1, and trying to compete in another series just makes me feel like they will get worse.
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Yeah, the last time they had factory teams in both series (early 1970s)... both programmes suffered in the end. The F1 car at the time was a pile of whatnot, and the 312PB was never reliable enough to win at Le Mans. Then again... there isn't anything stopping them from subcontracting the car build process to Michelotto and finding a budget + running the cars through AF Corse or some other team, just like Toyota are employing Oreca for the race operations and Audi doing the same with Joest.
 
mpicco said:
I don't wanna see attention diverted from F1 and then having a fail car at both series. The cars have been anything but brilliant these past few years in F1, and trying to compete in another series just makes me feel like they will get worse.
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TBH, I wouldn't mind seeing them abandon F1 all together.
 
F1 is not F1 without Ferrari.

Back to topic, subcontracting the "brand" to a team is just not gonna work. As you pointed out with Oreca, Toyotas did nothing at all, and Audi is just there applying years and years of knowledge on Diesel engines, which Ferrari doesn't have, unless LeMans' rules find the sweet spot to make petrol and diesel compete on even grounds.
 
Bretton Woods said:
It'd be nice to see, but what's wrong with the customer GT car teams?
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Nothing, and Porsche aren't abandoning the customer GT programme either, there will be customer 991s for the 2014 season run by several teams both in the WEC and in the States. Team Falken Tire have already confirmed that they will be running a customer/semi-factory 991 RSR in TUSC starting from Sebring. So if Ferrari go for a LMP1 programme, there's nothing stopping them from supporting customers that want to run the 458 (or its successor) in GTE. The GT programme (in terms of car building and spare parts) is being run by Michelotto, who are a (sort of) Ferrari subcontractor and have been at least since the 1990s and the 333SP.

On another note, someone posted a spy shot (from an Italian magazine) of a LaFerrari mule at Fiorano, and... some surprising details are included: chiefly among which, two things stand out: a huge air intake on top of the cockpit (a la F1 and/or most current closed-cockpit LMP cars), and... a vastly different cockpit/greenhouse and door/window, reminiscent of both the Maserati MC12 and... current LMP1 cars. :D

EDIT:
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vikiradTG2007 said:
Yeah, the last time they had factory teams in both series (early 1970s)... both programmes suffered in the end. The F1 car at the time was a pile of whatnot, and the 312PB was never reliable enough to win at Le Mans. Then again... there isn't anything stopping them from subcontracting the car build process to Michelotto and finding a budget + running the cars through AF Corse or some other team, just like Toyota are employing Oreca for the race operations and Audi doing the same with Joest.
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Their modest success in the 70s was down to Enzo's strategy. The F1 project never got proper attention until after LeMans, which was all that counted for the man. In this day and age the two projects would be run by two different teams anyway and a return to LeMans would have another benefit. The WEC doesn't have a testing ban, so theoretically Ferrari could test the raw stuffing out of the engines, which the F1 project would benefit from, too.
I doubt Ferrari would outsource the project to someone else, unless they would want to field the car as an Alfa-Romeo or a Maserati for marketing reasons. Ever since the late 90s Ferraris biggest strength in F1 has been reliability and where would that count more than at LeMans. I think they'd have a better shot at winning LeMans than F1, especially as you could get shafted at the last race with that brain-dead double points rule in F1 now. With races at Monaco and Monza greatly devalued over a non-descript Tilke-drome in the desert, returning to one of the most prestigious races in international motorsports could also be better for the marketing folk.
 
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