Daniil Kvyat joins Scuderia Ferrari!

Ferrari has hired Daniil Kvyat as the development driver for 2018, this means he will be replacing 2017 test driver Antonio Giovinazzi. He will spend most of his time in the simulator in Maranello.

The first reaction from fans is rather negative, as Kvyat is known for his bizarre moves in F1 races. Remember when he pushed Vettel not once, but twice at the start of the Russian GP. In Silverstone he pushed his own team mate Sainz off the track and out of the race. And he crashed spectacularly in Suzuka all by himself. These incidents awarded him the nickname “The Torpedo”.

However a test driver doesn’t race (unless something happens to one of the main drivers, like in 2009 after the Massa accident). He tests new improvements in the simulator, so crashing is not really a problem. The driver needs to be fast and give feedback to the team. You can’t deny he’s fast, so the decision isn’t as weird as it seems.
We wish the Ferrari team the best of luck and success in the upcoming 2018 Formula 1 season. The new car will be revealed on the 22nd of february.

Happy Birthday Michael Schumacher!

Michael Schumacher, always appreciated by the Ferrari fans turns 49 today! We want to go through the years he has spent with Ferrari.

Michael Schumacher is special to Ferrari and its fans. He brought Ferrari back to glory with his championships for the Maranello based team. A true racer in every way. Michael came to Ferrari in 1996 together with Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne, who is back at Maranello to work together with Simone Resta his team on designing the 2018 Ferrari F1 car. The first season at Ferrari was a good one but not the one he hoped for. Michael finished third in the championship with wins in Barcelona, Spa and Monza.

In 1997 Schumacher was able to fight for the championship. The championship would be decided in the last race. Michael was three points ahead of Villeneuve in the championship when they got to the last race. In the end Michael tried to eliminate Villeneuve but it didn’t work. Villeneuve became champion. In 1998 McLaren’s Häkkinen was Schumacher’s biggest rival. McLaren won a lot of races at the beginning of the season but Ferrari never gave up and in the second part of the season Michael and Ferrari started winning races and at the last race Schumacher still had an outside chance of winning the championship. Luck wasn’t on Ferrari’s side again and after a very difficult Sunday for Schumacher, Häkkinen won the championship. The 1999 season was again a difficult season for Michael. At the race in Silverstone he broke his leg in a crash and couldn’t drive for a long time. His comeback came in the penultimate race of the season.

The 2000 season marked the start of a Ferrari domination for five years! Schumacher and Ferrari started the season of very well with three wins. In the middle of the season they had bad luck again and didn’t finish four races. Häkkinen had a chance of winning the championship but in Japan Schumacher made it stick and won his first championship with Ferrari. In the period of 2001 to 2004 Schumacher was unstoppable. In these four years he won thirtynine races with the team from Maranello. The period is also called the “Schumacher period”.

In 2005 it became clear Ferrari lost its domination with just one win in he took at the infamous Indianapolis GP. In 2006 it looked like Michael was going to win his eight championship but an engine faillure while he was leading the Japanese GP made it almost impossible to still win the championship. In Brazil Michael drove one of his best races in his career but he couldn’t stop Alonso from taking his second championship.

After the 2006 season Schumacher retired for the first time from F1. Räikkönen got the seat Schumacher left behind. All of this shows how Schumacher got Ferrari back into its old position because in 2007 Ferrari went on to win the championship again, this time with Räikkönen. Michael will always be in the hearts of the Ferrari fans for what he has done for Ferrari. #keepfightingmichael

What if Santa was a Ferrari enthusiast?

We took the Ferrari 575M Maranello out for some Christmas shopping.

The 575M Maranello has a trunk space of 184 litres, perfect for some good old Christmas shopping. It’s also pretty fast which makes it ideal to get the present where they belong the quick way.

This mean, low-mileage 575M was bought in May 2003 by a Japanese client. He ordered the car at the Ferrari Tailor Made department in black with yellow details. He seemed to like consistency as every small part is painted yellow: the calipers, the hubcaps, the Pininfarina logo and even the stitching on the inside. All books are available and are included when you purchase the car from Real Art on Wheels. Only 17.000 kilometres were driven with the car.

The 575M was first introduced at the Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) back in 2002. Its sort of predecessor, the 550 Maranello, is a reincarnation of the 1974 365 GTB/4 Daytona. Ferrari was clearly focused on mid-engine cars in the 1980s and 1990s. The front-V12 setup goes back to the early days when Enzo revealed his first car, the 125S, at the Piacenza Racing Circuit in 1947. The massive 5.7L V12 revs up to 7,250 rpm and produces 508 bhp. When the engine is warm enough it creates an addictive sound partly comparable with the old F1 engines. To make sure the car keeps stable while dealing with speeds around the 320 km/h (200 mph) mark, Ferrari spent hours in the wind tunnel to create perfect aerodynamics.

It seemed like a great idea to end this amazing year with a Christmas related shoot. I met up with Bodie Hage and the 575M in Alphen a/d Rijn, the Netherlands. We drove to the center of the city because we were looking for a Christmas tree. The only thing we found there were some drunk teenagers hanging out at a McDonald’s, people that got overly excited when they saw the car and not even a Christmas tree. We departed and searched for an actual Christmas tree and found it in a garden. Bodie parked the car, without any shame, on the sidewalk in front of the house and I was able to take some pictures. It didn’t really turned out the way we hoped, so we drove to the next location: an underground parking garage. We stalled out the presents and the Race Track Art Pista di Fiorano art pieces to create a Christmas atmosphere. According to the pictures this proved to be a perfect decision, these are for sure in my list of favorite shots I took this year!

Organizing a Ferrari meeting in the winter

One of the coolest shoots ever. Five Prancing Horses were present in an old barn.

What do you do when it’s rainy outside but you want to organize a Ferrari meeting? You park all the cars inside. That’s exactly what happened at a Ferrari meeting in the Dutch city Alphen a/d Rijn.

Diederik Lieftink, a Dutch photographer, invited me over to this exciting meet which took place in an old warehouse partly dating back from the late 1880’s. It’s about to be demolished to create place for a much more modern garage. I hope they’re going to organize more little events when the new garage is finished in April 2018.

I arrived simultaneously with a Rosso Corsa 458 Italia at the location. The sound produced by the 4.5L V8 is so recognizable and the Pininfarina designed body just won’t get old. The car drove into the warehouse and parked alongside a 2006 Blu Tour de France F430 Spider and a 2007 grey F430 Spider. Both Spiders were in mint condition by the looks of it but if I had to pick one, I’d go for the blue one. The paint job is magnificent in combination with the tan leather interior. A similar coloured soft top appears when you put the roof up, which is in many ways very rare. In fact, most F430 Spiders were delivered with a black soft top.

Another beauty that turned up was a manual 360 Spider from 2001. The owner was brave enough to drive the car with its top down, while it was pouring down with rain. The 360 Spider was the twentieth road-going convertible from Maranello and its coupe-bodied brother, the 360 Modena, was named after the Italian city Modena, where Enzo Ferrari was born. I fell in love with manual Ferraris in August when I got to ride shotgun in an F40 and an F50. Then, in October we spent a day with a manual 360 Modena. The thing with manual cars is that you feel more connected with the car while shifting. The cling-clang sounds so much more mechanical compared to the F1-flappy-pedal-gearbox.

It was great to meet some local Ferrari owners while enjoying a cup of coffee and typical Dutch olliebollen. Let’s hope they’re in for some future shoots to create more content of their cars. Big thanks goes out to Diederik for inviting me to cover this unique little meet. Click on this blue sentence to find more pictures.

The hardcore 488 has been spotted!

The hardcore 488 GTB has been caught in the wild by Autoweek reader Hanjo Van Heiningen. This is our first look at the new Ferrari without any camouflage. The reveal is expected at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.

Hardcore variants are hot, there is no doubting that. As soon as a new model is revealed, petrolheads immediately start thinking about the hardcore track-focused variant. The Mclaren 720S? People start discussing the 720LT. The newest Porsche 911? Nice, but what would the GT3RS be like? Lamborghini Huracan? The Performante is far more desirable.

Things are similar at Ferrari, the 360 Modena is a great car, but not as iconic as the 360 Challenge Stradale. The F430 is nice, but you get really excited about the 430 Scuderia. And even the almost perfect in every way 458 Italia is topped by the stunning 458 Speciale. So when the 488 GTB launched, we started dreaming what could be possible if Ferrari cut some weight and added some power. And that is exactly what we see here for the first time.
This 488 is expected to have over 700hp and lose unnecessary weight, which will allow us to experience the 488 in its purest form. The public presentation is expected at the Geneva Motor Show, on March 8th. If you wish to order yours, I suggest calling your dealership today, as production will be limited.

The model will be powered by a 3.9L twin-turbo V8, possibly with some sort of KERS system. It could have 4-wheel steering, but nothing is confirmed. We can see some aerodynamic innovations on the front bumper, and on the bonnet, but the overall styling will remain the same as the 488 GTB. Expect the downforce to be significantly increased for track use, but there won’t be an ugly spoiler on the back. More technical details are coming.

The last thing to think about is the name. If we look at the previous hardcore V8 models, Scuderia and Speciale, this will probably wear a different name in the same trend.
We consider the addition “GTO” highly unlikely as these are extremely special letters in the Ferrari history, and the 488 is not the top model in the range. We will have to wait and be surprised by Ferrari.

FerrariPhotoPage will be at the Geneva Motor Show, so keep an eye on our Instagram!

Mission accomplished for Ferrari in WEC!

Ferrari already completed its goal in the WEC 2017 season by winning the manufacturers’ title in Shanghai. For the drivers there was everything to fight for. Both the #51 and #71 crews still had a chance of winning the title. In the end the #71 won the race with the #51 in second. The result meant that the #51 won the championship. Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado drove a perfect season wich allowed them to win the championship.

GTE-Pro
Pier Guidi and Calado and the whole Ferrari AF Corse team handled the race tactics to perfection. After a cautious start car #51 climbed the rankings and went ahead near the halfway mark, taking advantage of a Full Course Yellow phase that penalised the #71 that had pitted with the green flag. From then on James and Alessandro managed their speed carefully so as to protect the tyres, but still successfully held onto their lead over their rivals in the final stage. However, Sam Bird in car #71 was faster towards the end so it was decided that #51 would stage a spectacular parade finish with Bird and Rigon who fully deserved the victory and for this reason were first on the finish line. This is Alessandro Pier Guidi’s first year as an official Ferrari driver, while James Calado is in his fourth season with the Maranello brand, having started racing in car #71 as David Rigon’s teammate in 2014. The world champions secured the title at the end of an almost perfect season that, after a bad result in the Le Mans 24 Hours, saw them climb up the standings with wins, first at the Nurburgring and then at Austin and at Fuji. This is Ferrari’s 22nd victory in the WEC.

GTE-Am
Two 488 GTE cars were on the podium in the GTE-Am class. After a long struggle with the Aston Martin title winner driven by Dalla Lana-Lamy-Lauda, #61 of Clearwater Racing came second with Keita Sawa, Matt Griffin and Weng Sun Mok, ahead of car #54 of Spirit of Race with Francesco Castellacci, Thomas Flohr and Miguel Molina. The overall victory went to Buemi-Nakajima-Davidson of Toyota.

It was a great season for everyone involved in the WEC. From Michelotto to AF-Corse to the CompetizioniGT team and all the other people who made it possible for Ferrari to win. Securing two world championships in the biggest series for endurance racing, the prancing horse proved its strength again and will do the same next year. And even though this season was thrilling next year will even be more. BMW will return and Aston Martin will drive with a new car. There also will be a superseason wich will start in Spa-Franchorchamps (2017) and finish in Le Mans (2018)!

Brazilian GP: Vettel wins Interlagos thriller!

Brazil always delivers a spectacular race, this year it was in the glorious sunshine, in hot conditions that caused some tyre issues. The many fans could enjoy a thrilling fight on track. In the end it was Vettel who finished on top, Bottas in 2nd and Kimi joining the Ferrari party on the podium!

Saturday
Qualifying had only just begun and we had our first shock of the weekend, Hamilton crashed on his first run! The 4-time world champion made a mistake and was out of qualifying. No problems for the Ferrari crew. As they went into Q3, the chance of rain increased by the minute and a few drops could be seen on camera. On the first run Sebastian set the fastest time and pole was within reach. Hopes went even higher when it started to drizzle down on track. But somehow Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas managed to sqeeuze out a 58 thousands faster lap and he took the pole.

Sunday
No rain in sight today, only perfect blue skies and sunshine. The track was hot and tyre wear unpredictable. This left some strategists worried, one pitstop? Maybe two? They would have to adapt during the race.

The start was brilliant at the front, Vettel dove on the inside of turn 1 and was in the lead. But there was drama when Magnussen, Vandoorne and Ricciardo were side by side in turn 2. The race ended instantly for Van and Mag, while Ricciardo recovered from a spin to P6!
First lap drama continued when Grosjean lost the rear and collected Ocon on the way off. This ended the famous Oconsistency in a rather sad way, and was the first ever F1 retirement for the talented frenchman.
After the safety car Vettel managed the race, however it wasn’t easy when Bottas almost did a succesful undercut. Kimi followed in third. Max Verstappen couldn’t keep up today as he struggled with worn tyres, eventually doing another pitstop close to the end. Clearly the wrong setup for these temperatures.

Meanwhile Hamilton had no tyre problems and he found himself in the lead before finally pitting, he finished an impressive fourth and was awarded Driver of the day.
Both Ferrari drivers on the podium and a welcomed victory after so much struggles in recent GP’s. Forza Ferrari and in two weeks it’s the final race of the season, in Abu Dhabi!

Congratulations to ex-Ferrari driver Felipe Massa on a fantastic 7th place in his final home GP.

Championships falling the way of Ferrari!

After two succesful seasons full of victories the IMSA and ELMS championships came to a close with succeses for Ferrari. And with just one race to go in the WEC championship Ferrari already are manufacturers’ world champion. The drivers’ world championship now is the next goal to make it a perfect season for the Ferrari Competizioni GT department.

WEC
After a succesful season Ferrari came to Shanghai with just one goal: the manufacturers’ world championship. The points needed for the championship came at this race so all the people at Michelotto, AF Corse, Ferrari and the Competizioni GT department were able to celebrate Monday morning.

GTE-Pro
In the GTE-Pro class, the race was difficult for both cars. James Calado had to give way early on to the Ford #66 of Olivier Pla, extremely fast on the straight, while Davide Rigon dropped two places, also in troubles because of the 488 GTE’s limited top speed. The first half of the race was a sacrifice one for car #51, which started with old tyres so as to have fresh ones for the final stages. Just two tyres were changed at the first two pit stops and only 3 hours from the end the 488 GTE had the chance to lap with four new tyres. The tactics for car #71 were more gradual but broadly similar. In the second half of the race both 488 GTE cars began to climb the standings with the #51 rising to fourth and #71 to sixth. Near the end one of the two Fords suffered a tyre crisis, which let Pier Guidi take third while Rigon finished in sixth behind the Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen. Victory went to Henry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx in Ford #67 but the celebrations were in the AF Corse Ferrari garage.

GTE-Am
It was a bitter race for the #61 and #54 Ferrari 488 GTE cars. After barely one hour driving they both got hit by the same prototype in turn 1. The prototype completely misjudged his move and went on to hit both Ferrari’s. The #54 unfortunately remained in the pits for the rest of the race. The #61 secured fourth place in class after a six laps long repair. The class victory went to the Aston Martin of Dalla Lana-Lamy-Lauda, while the Toyota of Nakajima-Buemi-Davidson was the overall winner. While result of the 6 Hours of Shanghai closed the Constructors’ title the Drivers’ championship is still open and will be decided in Bahrain on 17 and 18 November. James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi hold a two-point advantage over Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz of Porsche and 7.5 on Priaulx and Tincknell. The other Ferrari driver Davide Rigon is still in the running, 17.5 points behind.

ELMS
In 2016 it was heartbreak for JMW Motorsport when they were denied the ELMS title by an accident in what was already a difficult race because of some technical issues. Twelve months later it was all smiles in the JMW Motorsport garage as Jody Fannin and Rob Smith took the title in Portimão finishing second with Will Stevens as third driver. The GTE class win became a fight between the #77 and the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE, with the championship leading #90 TF Sport Aston Martin trying to close the gap to the leading duo. In the end it was the #77 Proton Competition car that took the chequered flag for the first time in 2017 with the JMW Motorsport Ferrari in second to take the 2017 ELMS title for Jody Fanin and Rob Smith to add to the 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGTE Am title Rob Smith and Will Stevens won in June. The other two Ferrari’s unfortunately had to retire. The #51 suffered a suspension failure and the #55 had engine problems wich cost them a podium finish.

IMSA
At the last race of the season Ferrari scored another succes in the IMSA championship. Scuderia Corsa went on to win the constructors’ championship. Balzan and Nielsen sealed the drivers’ title.

VIDEO: This manual 360 Modena is a rare beauty

We took the Ferrari 360 Modena from Real Art on Wheels on a drive around the Dutch capital.

Around 20 years ago, when the Ferrari 360 Modena was introduced, the Italians delivered both manual and F1 transmissions. The majority wanted to feel like a Formula 1 driver, so many clients purchased the car with the F1 transmission. Nowadays, manual Ferraris are very popular and because of the rarity they are often more expensive than their siblings with the F1 transmission.

Bodie Hage, owner of Real Art On Wheels, took us out in the car to shoot a video for our YouTube-channel. This 360 Modena dates back from 2002 and is finished in the recognizable Rosso Corsa paintjob with silver wheels and a black interior. Very classic spec you would say and not even that rare. But what makes this car so desirable is its transmission. Only 469 360 Modena’s were sold with the 6 speed manual transmission, making it even more unique than the LaFerrari with only 500 examples.

We met up with Bodie in Alphen aan de Rijn, the place where it all started. Bodie was fashionable late because he went to buy typical Dutch gevulde koeken for us to enjoy with some coffee. We sat down while Bodie had to get some work done and we walked through his warehouse full of classic goodies. The Verde Pino 275 GTB/4 is definitely taking your breath away, but the blacked out 575M Maranello and of course the manual 360 Modena are on another level as well. Bodie eventually came out of his office and we started recording the interview for our video. Bodie is such a passionate guy and loves talking about cars, especially classics.

After trying a few things, the interview was completed and it was time to move outside into the lovely (read: pouring with rain) Dutch weather. Very annoying if you want to shoot with expensive equipment. We drove off to the first location and were even accompanied by a group of cows who were very curious about the fast, red thing driving up and down the street. “The manual transmission makes driving this particular 360 Modena an even more fascinating experience. The feeling of gliding through the gears is something nothing can beat!’’

You can find Real Art on Wheels in the P.C. Hooftstraat in Amsterdam since May 2017. Bodie managed to start a pop-up store in the middle of our capital. Still amazes me how many people would walk by and stop to take a peek inside. We drove from Alphen aan de Rijn to Amsterdam and we managed to take some decent rolling shots while at it. When we arrived in Amsterdam, Bodie parked up the 360 on the sidewalk for us to take some more pictures. We eventually left the place about an hour later when around 20 exciting kids surrounded the car, asked questions and were scared when Bodie revved the naturally aspirated V8 to around 3.000 rpm! Check out more pictures on this page.

Similar as in London, you get a lot of turning heads while driving the car through the city. It was cool to see familiar places like the Rijksmuseum and the Concertgebouw from a different perspective than usual. Like you would expect, driving a Ferrari through a big and crowded city is not the smartest thing to do. Nonetheless a great experience and not the last collaboration between Real Art On Wheels and FerrariPhotoPage, so stay tuned!

Mexican GP: Ferrari keeps the spirit high!

The Formula 1 Gran Premio de México was memorable to say the least, from a dominant Verstappen to Lewis Hamilton securing his fourth title in ninth place. Kimi takes a podium and Vettel pushed from the back to 4th place.

Saturday
Ferrari was celebrating saturday afternoon, because Sebastian Vettel was on pole position! It was his 50th career pole and the 5th for Ferrari in 2017. Verstappen was less than a tenth slower and would start alongside Vettel, with Hamilton behind in 3rd.

Sunday
The start was especially important this time, because it’s a long way to the first corner. Seb had a good start, but Verstappen even better and he was very menacing into the braking zone. Hamilton was right behind, looking for a gap. Vettel leads into the first corner, but Verstappen is on the inside for turn 2. They make contact and Lewis slides in front, Verstappen is surprisingly slow out of turn 3, forcing Hamilton to lift and causing Vettel to touch his right rear wheel. It was a messy start, Seb had a broken front wing, Hamilton a punctured tyre. The title rivals crawled back to the pits and started their run back to the front. Sebastian pushed like hell and passed half the field, sometimes easy, sometimes difficult like the overtake on Massa. Hamilton had more trouble and was even lapped by leader Verstappen.

The next big moment came when the Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley retired on the side of the track, causing a Virtual Safety Car and a subsequently run to the pits. Hamilton fitted supersofts. Vettel picked the faster ultrasofts, and continued his way through the field. After setting the fastest lap multiple times, he was in P4 at the finish line and was awarded “driver of the day” for his remarkable drive. Kimi had a quiet but good race and was on the podium! Bottas took 2nd, while Verstappen finished way ahead in the lead.

Lewis Hamilton takes his fourth world championship thanks to consistent good results from both team and driver. Seb applauded him on the cooldown lap and later said: “He’s done a superb job all year round and deserves to win the title. So congratulations to him. It’s not about anyone else today, it’s about him. It’s his day.” And I think this is the best part to remember about this weekend, true respect between rivals. There are still two races to go, will we see something spectacular now that the pressure is off?