This weekend’s Spa 24 Hours is one of the biggest races in the world and is also one with a special significance for Ferrari. The 69th edition of the race held on the legendary Ardennes circuit will see 11 Prancing Horse cars on track.
History The endurance race witnessed the first appearance of the Prancing Horse badge on the cars of the Scuderia Ferrari. The mother of First World War hero Francesco Baracca had entrusted the symbol to Enzo Ferrari. That symbol immediately brought luck to Ferrari, who in 1932, 15 years before founding his company, deployed a number of Alfa Romeos in the Scuderia’s colours. Indeed, the Spa 24 Hours of 1932 saw two Alfa Romeo 8C 2300s with the black prancing horse on a yellow background. The winner was car no. 38 driven by Antonio Brivio and Eugenio Siena, who finished ahead of teammates Piero Taruffi and Guido d’Ippolito, in what was an extraordinary success. Since then Maranello has tasted victory almost a hundred times at Spa-Francorchamps in closed-wheel competitions.
Cars Eleven 488 GT3 cars will start the race on Saturday with eight official Ferrari drivers on the grid. The Pro-Am cup sees Ferrari having its strongest appearance with six cars from Maranello. In the Pro Class there are three 488 GT3’s on the grid, with five official Ferrari drivers spread over the three cars. In the Am Cup only two prancing horse cars will appeare. The #488 from Rinaldi Racing and the Kessel Racing #888.
The race will start on Saturday at 04:30 pm and will finish on Sunday 04:30 pm
Last Sunday the Red Bull Ring in Austria hosted the third round of the ELMS season. The 488 GTE cars of Maranello customer teams occupied three of the top four positions, winning the 4 Hours in Austria.
GTE The cars from Maranello already dominated qualifying on Saturday with pole for the #51 Spirit of Race crewed by Andrea Bertolini, Giorgio Roda and Gianluca Roda.
When the race got underway it immediately became clear the battle for victory would be between the Ferrari’s. In the first hour of the race the #55 Spirit of Race car took the lead ahead of the #66 JMW Motorsport 488 GTE. After the first pit stop the #66 made up a lot of ground on the #55 car. In the second part of hour two, the JMW Motorsport 488 GTE had caught up to the back of the Spirit of Race car. The #51 ran in a strong third place but then the car went into the gravel and lost its position and some time. The car then stopped for a driver change with Andrea Bertolini jumping into the car. He drove an amazing stint and overtook the TF Sport Aston Martin again for third place.
When the last hour had arrived, everything looked good for Ferrari, but in the end the TF Sport car with new tyres and a very experienced driver behind the wheel could still overtake the #51 car for third place. When the chequered flag fell the #55 won, the #66 came home in second position and the #51 took fourth place.
The next race will be at the Paul Ricard track at the end of August.
After the longest race of the season, the FIA WEC championship returned to the track. This time in the German Eifel at the Nürburgring. With a win in GTE-Pro and second place for the #54 Spirit of Race, the 488 GTE proved its strength again.
GTE-Pro With a great start for the #71 AF Corse car, the race started well for the Prancing Horse. But then disaster came and half an hour into the race the gearbox seized up. The car was driven back to the pits by Davide Rigon so the AF Corse mechanics could repair the gearbox. When the car set off again it was two laps behind the class leader.
The #51 car had more luck, James Calado jumped from seventh to fifth and joined up with the group of two Porsches, the Aston Martin #95 and Ford #66, but was unable to attempt an attack due to a lack of top speed. Car #51’s race was thus all based on strategy, thanks to the extraordinary ability of Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi to save tyres and fuel. The Ferrari was always the last to stop and gained time in the second part of the stints when tyres started to struggle. The crew gained seconds until the halfway mark, so the drivers just had to manage their lead in the second half of the race. Pier Guidi put in a fantastic double stint, which Calado replicated over the following 90 minutes. All this resulted in a win for the #51. The twin car, just as it was mounting a strong recovery with great times from Rigon and his occasional teammate Toni Vilander, was again pulled up short by the gearbox whose repair cost another two laps. The car finished eighth in its class.
GTE-Am In the GTE-Am class, the two Ferraris struggled with the pace but were very competitive with worn tyres in the closing stages. The 488 GTE of Spirit of Race driven by Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci and Miguel Molina, an official Prancing Horse driver, finished second, while Clearwater Racing’s #61 driven by Griffin, Mok and Sawa came home in fourth position. The class victory went to the Porsche of Dienst, Ried and Cairoli, while the Porsche of BernhardBamber-Hartley was the overall winner.
The next round will take place in Mexico at the start of September.
Lewis Hamilton dominates his home Grand Prix leading every lap of the race, Ferrari was heading for a strong result when disaster struck in the final laps.
It was a succesful qualifying for the Scuderia, Kimi in P2 and Seb in P3. Hamilton had pole position by over half a second, he was in a different class this weekend. Perhaps not going to the F1 Live event actually was a good idea?
The start was clean, but it only took half a lap before we were treated to yet another embarrassing mistake by Kvyat, this time he crashed into his team mate Sainz which put him out of the race. Kvyat himself had damage but could continue the race, later he received a drive-through penalty for the incident. An interesting debrief at Toro Rosso tonight…
Vettel had a poor start, probably caused by overheating. There were 2 warm-up laps because Palmer stranded on the side of the track with hydraulic problems. This allowed Verstappen to take 3rd place before the safety car stopped the fight. When Sainz’ car was recovered, the battle resumed and we saw some close racing. Ferrari quickly realised it is nearly impossible to pass Max Verstappen and they gave Vettel some fresh tyres. The undercut worked and Seb got in front of Max.
The top places remained untouched for a long time until a black cat walked into the Ferrari pitbox and destroyed our hopes of a double Ferrari podium. First of all Bottas passed Vettel, the Finn delivered a consistent drive today and the Mercedes was undeniably the faster car. 5 laps to go with Kimi in 2nd place and Seb in 4th, a decent result was in sight. Drama for the team and fans when Raïkkonen got a puncture, he managed to hang on to 4th after his pitstop. Then Vettel’s tyre gave up earlier in the lap and left him limping to the pits, watching crucial championship points slip away. He ended in P7. Kimi got P3 when Red Bull panicked and called Verstappen in for new tyres.
A Mercedes one-two makes the constructor championship a lot less exciting. Lewis Hamilton dominated all weekend: a perfect pole lap, leading the whole race and closing the gap to Vettel in the championship to just 1 point.
Ferrari made the best of their Austria GP while Bottas performs the greatest drive of his career leading from start to finish. Kimi ends P5 while Vettel extends his championship lead over Hamilton to 20 points. Ricciardo completes the podium.
After qualifying, tifosi were looking forward to the race, Hamilton in P8 after a grid penalty creating a good chance for a red victory. Bottas was on pole, Vettel P2 and Raikkönen P3.
It was a difficult start for the Scuderia. Bottas made a superb launch off the grid, Vettel stayed in second. Räikkönen was pushed wide at turn 2 and got overtaken by 2 cars. In the back both Alonso and Verstappen were pushed out of the race after another idiotic move by Kvyat, resulting in a drive through and 2 penalty points. Hamilton quickly catched up to Räikkönen before making an early pitstop.
Numerous drivers complained about tyre wear, but no major consequences in this rather uneventful race.
In the final laps we saw a nice battle for third between Hamilton and Ricciardo, and the smiling Aussie ended up on the podium. Bottas kept his cool under pressure from Seb and took home a deserving win for Mercedes. Vettel gained 6 points over Hamilton. He now has 20 points lead. But be careful: that’s still less than a victory (25 points). Lewis will be eager to win on his home Grand Prix this weekend in Silverstone.
Our good friend Wilco Blok spotted an all taped up 488 GTB driving around at the Nürburgring in Germany. Rumour has it, it might be the early testing mule for the 488 ‘’Speciale’’ which should be coming out at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.
Another rumour about this car that’s going around is that it could be a modern version of the classic Dino. This means it’ll most likely feature a V6 engine. I personally think we need to wait just a couple of years before this could actually happen. Ferrari could even bring out a limited edition of the modern Dino. Who knows?
There are also rumours that the car will have a KERS system similar to the one in the LaFerrari and in the F1 cars. The KERS system will provide the engine a little electric boost when it’s fully loaded. Visual changes are hard to see due the amount of protection, but they should definitely be present, just like previous V8-hardcore versions.
One of the most notable races of this year’s F1 season took place in Baku; a total of three safety cars, a red flag and plenty of crashes/accidents. When Vettel hit Hamilton on purpose, the day got a nasty turn for Ferrari.
Vettel got frustrated by Hamilton because the Mercedes-driver reduced his speed way too early for a corner while a safety car was driving in front of them. This resulted in Vettel driving into the rear of Hamilton’s car. Vettel wasn’t quite happy with this action so he overtook Hamilton and drove into the left side of Hamilton’s car. At the end of the race Vettel received a time-penalty for his actions and three penalties on his race licence. He’s just three penalties away before getting suspended. While Räikkönen was driving on the 14th place Vettel was able to finish as fourth.
The first part of the race went pretty well for the German Ferrari driver. He started the race at the fourth place but due a little incident between Räikkönen and Bottas he was able to grab the second place. Räikkönen recovered from the collision drove on the sixth place for a while. But then he couldn’t avoid some spare car parts left on the track of a previous contact which resulted in a flat tyre. He had to take a pit stop to fix the problem of the tyre but also to repair the rear side of the car. Because of the red flag the Ferrari crew got the chance to repair the car which meant Räikkönen could resume his race. Although he drove one lap behind the whole group, he was back in the game. Unfortunately he had to retire because the damage of the collision with Bottas was too heavy to continue the race.
It seems nothing good happened for Ferrari in this chaotic race. But that’s not the case, there is actually some good news for Vettel. He’s still in the first place of the championship and scored more points compared to his biggest rival Hamilton. In the constructors championship Mercedes scored more points than Ferrari. The next race will take place in Austria on the Red Bull Racing track.
The 85th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans brought Ferrari a clean sweep of the podium, a fifth place and two disappointments in the two GT classes. Victory for the third consecutive year came in the GTE-Am class where the 488 GTE literally dominated. Things went less well in the GTE-Pro class where only the Ferrari #71 of AF Corse finished in the points. Car #51 was entirely out of luck, knocked out due to a misunderstanding with a lapped car that destroyed a radiator.
GTE-Pro! In GTE-Pro not everything went well for Ferrari. In the first part of the race the Ferrari’s could keep up with the leading package but then after an hour the Aston Martin started to pull away of the chasing pack. Then 5 hours into the race the #82 Risi Competizioni was hit after a crazy action of Mathieu Vaxiviere in the Oreca of TDS Racing. The driver luckily was okay, but their race was over. When the darkness fell over Circuit de la Sarthe things began to settle. The Ferrari #51 though made up a lot of ground on the leaders during the night and when the sun came to a rise, they were fighting for victory. But then there was drama! A misunderstanding with a lap car ruined their race. The radiator was broken and that would take an hour to repair. Meanwhile the AF-Corse mechanics were working really hard to get the #51 back on track, the #71 Ferrari was battling for fourth and third place. In the end they didn’t have enough time to get really close to them so they could start battling. They came home in fifth place, while the #51 had to settle for eleventh.
GTE-Am! Ferrari had everything to celebrate in the GTE-Am class, where Maranello enjoyed a clean sweep of the podium with three 488 GTEs from three teams: JMW Motorsport, Spirit of Race and Scuderia Corsa. The Aston Martin of Dalla Lana-LamyLauda dictated the pace from the start, but as darkness fell its front right tyre exploded to put it out of the running. At that point first place went to the 488 of JMW Motorsport that had been the only one to vie with the British car for first place. The youthful Dries Vanthoor, former Formula One driver Will Stevens and the experienced Robert Smith drove impeccably to pull off an extraordinary result for the British team that a few weeks ago in Monza had won its last race with the 458 Italia GTE (in the European Le Mans Series). At Le Mans it embarked upon the new 488 GTE era in the best possible way. Second place went to the sister car of Spirit of Race crewed by Marco Cioci, Duncan Cameron and Aaron Scott. A Prancing Horse car also took third. The 488 GTE of Scuderia Corsa driven by the 2016 winners, Bill Sweedler and Townsend Bell, alongside Cooper MacNeil. Also worth mentioning is the fifth place of the Ferrari of Clearwater Racing driven by Matt Griffin, Keita Sawa and Mok Weng Sung, which notched up some very important points for the GTE-Am title of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The championship resumes in mid-July at the Nürburgring.
When introduced in 1967, the Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 was the most luxurious car you could get from Maranello. Both power steering and air-conditioning where standard. Same counts for the electric windows and the interior lights. We had the opportunity to shoot our first YouTube video with this unique car.
I have never met someone who’s so full of passion about cars as René, the owner of the 365 GT 2+2. He talked us through his experience of owning a classic Ferrari since the moment he bought the car. When rolling out of the factory in 1968, the car was finished in blue with a light tan coloured interior. Unfortunately, the previous owner tucked the car away in his workshop and basically forgot about it. When René purchased the car he got himself a true project car. The once so beautiful blue paint job pulverized and even the interior needed a serious refurbishment. Not to forget the 320 bhp 4.4 liter V12 which eventually required a total revision.
Check out the video at the bottom of this article!
Talking about that V12, it might be the best sounds my ears have ever listened to. I have always been a massive fan of Ferrari V12s, they sound so pure and menacing. Heritage is one of the biggest things when Ferrari start producing a new car. Take the ultra-rare 500 Superfast for example. That car is basically the predecessor to the 365 GT 2+2 and it features the same charm and purposes as this old green lady.
René wanted a unique 365 GT 2+2 so he took it to an Italian car specialized body shop located in Germany where this beautiful light green (Verde Medio) came to life. Previously he had purchased second hand the optional wire wheels and replaced them for the standard rims. Funny thing about the wire wheels is that they mostly fit only one type of car. So it could’ve happened that one of the wheels just wouldn’t fit. To me and especially to René these wheel add to the beauty of this classic car. Another funny thing about the wire wheels is that they were the only factory option available.
The Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 is the first Ferrari featuring KONI shock absorbers. KONI is a Dutch company specialised in performance shock absorbers. This might be a useless fact but it’s actually a special one for Dutch Ferraristas. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who was a well-respected client of Ferrari, convinced Enzo Ferrari to use KONI’s for his products. Ferrari is still using the shock absorbers by KONI on their modern cars. The 365 GT 2+2 was also one of the first cars using independent rear suspension resulting in a much more relaxed ride. Its predecessor, the 330 GT 2+2 used a live rear axle on leaf springs making it a less comfortable car. Compared to today’s production figures, the 365 GT 2+2 seems like a pretty rare car. It still is, but with around 800 examples built it was the bestseller of Ferrari back in the 60s and 70s.
The 365 GT 2+2 is powered by a 4.4 liter V12 producing 320 bhp. Its 0-100 km/h (60 mph) time is 7.1 seconds, but believe me, it feels a lot quicker! René once pushed the car to a speed of 220 km/h (137 mph) which is mental for a 50 year old car. The official top speed is 245 km/h (152 mph).
Spending the day with a classic Ferrari was an amazing experience. I feel very privileged to organize such photoshoots and get to know more about Ferraris thanks to passionate owners like René. Our main goal for the day was to get content for our YouTube channel which is going live in a few weeks, so stay tuned!
What an insanely successful day for Scuderia Ferrari in the South of France! The Italians took both first and second place in the Monaco Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel managed to get his third first place of this. Räikkönen crossed the line as second and the third place was covered by Red Bull-driver Daniel Ricciardo.
Ferrari was basically the best team of the whole weekend. Räikkönen had a great qualifying which resulted in a pole position. Pole position on the track of Monaco might be one of the most important ones of the season, because it’s so hard to overtake on the tight track. Vettel qualified as second with just 0,043 seconds difference between him and Räikkönen. Both drivers were fortunate enough to show a good start without any drama in the first corner. Räikkönen kept the first place till his first pit stop in lap 35. Vettel drove into the pits in lap 39. The gap of 20 seconds between him and Räikkönen was big enough to eventually finish as first. Because of an accident between Jenson Button and Pascal Wehrlein the safety car was enabled. Luckily, both Ferrari-drivers hold their position. This was the 82nd time Ferrari covered the first and second place in the F1 history.
The Constructors Championship is still being led by Ferrari with 196 points which is 17 points more than the biggest rival Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel is leading the Driver Championship with a total of 129 points. Hamilton is now 19 points behind the German. The next race is on the 11th of June at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Canada.
Ferrari Lifestyle | ROSSO 