Ferrari Reveals Their 2024 Hypercar 499P Livery

This time of year welcomes a flurry of livery design reveals ahead of the start of the 2024 race season. Next up is the Ferrari Hypercar set to compete in this years rendition of the World Endurance Championship.

From Ferrari…

Press Release: Maranello, 18 February 2024 – Ferrari marks the anniversary of the birth of Enzo Ferrari on 18 February 1898 with the unveiling of the livery of the 499P that will compete in the Hypercar class of the FIA WEC 2024. The spotlight is now on the second world championship season, which will kick off on 2 March in Qatar and feature car numbers 50 and 51 fielded by the Ferrari – AF Corse team. 

Tradition and innovation intertwine in the new livery of the Ferrari Hypercar. While closely recalling that of last season, when the Italian team won the Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished runner-up in the Manufacturers’ standings, the new racing colours look to the future and introduce innovative elements. 

Ferrari’s red, synonymous worldwide with the Italian sporting spirit, is coupled with the company’s traditional Giallo Modena yellow already seen on the 2023 livery, and together they emphasise the car’s sculptural and dynamic lines. 

The color scheme celebrates the Ferrari 312 PB, the last prototype to compete in the World Championship in 1973 before a half-century interlude broken last year when the Prancing Horse returned to the top endurance class. A racing red specifically designed for the new season dominates the 499P and is combined with the Giallo Modena yellow highlights. The deep, intense red of the bodywork takes inspiration from the F2007 single-seater with which Scuderia Ferrari competed in Formula 1 in 2007, but with the addition of new elements: these produce a glossier version of the Hypercar that boosts the car’s visibility at night and in conditions with poor visibility. 

The composition of the livery designed for the two 499P numbers 50 and 51, driven by the six official Ferrari drivers, is also a departure from the previous year. The main objective is to accentuate the car’s body and cockpit with two staggered colour blocks, creating a fluid, compositional rhythm and with a design that, by blending the two hues, enhances the lines and three-dimensional quality of the surface geometry. 

These aspects are apparent when viewing the Hypercar side-on: the Giallo Modena surrounds the entire cockpit, underlining its physical and symbolic importance. New graphic features, lines and horizontal bands in the same color further accentuate the concept of dynamism and speed by expanding in the lower part of the bodywork near the rear wheelarches, on the upper part of the tail fin and inside the rear-wing end plates. 

The team line ups for the number 50 and 51 hypercars are Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen, and Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi respectively . 

Its been 18 months since the development of the Alpine A424 Hypercar started. Alpine has officially announced a two car entry into the 2024 World Endurance Championship. Paul-Loup Chatin, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg will pilot one car with Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Mick Schumacher.

The team released their new livery for 2024 which sports the Alpine iconic blue. Philippe Sinault, Team Principal, Alpine Endurance Team said, “We are writing the next lines of the history of Alpine in Endurance. We must be humble, but ambitious for our project. We experienced big changes and a huge step forward as a team. To reveal our Hypercar for the 2024 season alongside our drivers is truly a special moment.  We will learn to use the technical package, rely on our drivers’ experience, be reliable and, of course, finish the races. I think it’s difficult to say if we will go for the win this year, but we are hungry for good results, and expecting to shine quickly with everything we have put in place.” 

The 2024 World Endurance Championship (WEC) will be a packed grid with 19 Hypercar entries, 18 LMGT3 cars. Overall 14 manufacturers have committed to a full year campaign. The WEC will undergo some changes for the 2024 season and welcomes many new teams to the competition. One of the most notable changes is the increase in entries for the Hypercars class. There will be 6 additional cars on the grid for 2024 with Alpine, BMW, Isotta Fraschini and Lamborghini joining the existing teams Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche and Toyota. The increase in grid size will make for better, more competitive racing.

Ushering in the LM GT3 Class

With the sunsetting of the LMGTE class specifications last season. This year the new LMGT3 class will feature a variety of technical updates. WEC specifies a few changes such as torquemeters, possible small bodywork upgrade, luminescent number panels and leader light. The cars will be using Goodyear tires for the next three years after WEC signed a contract with Goodyear to replace Michelin as the tire supplier for the series. There are currently 18 entries for the LMGT3 class for 2024.

Venues Added and Changes to Qualifying

WEC has added two circuits to the 2024 schedule resulting in 8 races total. Lusail in Qatar and Imola in Italy have been added to the schedule. Two circuits, Interlagos in Brazil and Circuit of the Americas in the USA will rejoin the legendary races at Spa-Francorchamps, Bahrain, Fuji and Le Mans after a hiatus from the WEC schedule. The move to add a south American stop will mean the WEC will span Asia, Europe, North America, South America and the Middle East for the 2024 season.

Qualifying Changes

The changes to qualifying will result in two separate qualifying sessions for both Hypercar and LMGT3 classes. Each class will participate in a 12 minute qualifying session followed by a 10-minute-long Hyperpole. The top finisher in Hyperpole will decide the pole position. Previously each class featured a single, 15-minute qualifying. The change extends to all races what WEC already did with the Hyperpole format reserved for the 24 Hours of Le Mans . The change should make qualifying more competitive and possibly shake up the top 10 starting grid for each class.

Introduction of the VSC to WEC

The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) is a feature used by the FIA in Formula One to mitigate on track risks that do not require a full safety car or red flag. WEC will add a VSC component to its races in 2024. The details were provided by WEC below

“The Race Director may declare a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) if deemed necessary.  Each VSC period will be systematically followed by a Safety Car procedure.

The VSC is a tool intended to secure interventions around the track in the event of an accident and can be used for an approximate duration of two laps before deployment of the Safety Car (SC).

Once VSC is displayed on the monitors, the cars must slow down to 80kph, in a single line, and maintain the distance that separates them from the car in front and the one behind. Access to the pit lane will remain open for the duration of the VSC. When the Race Director deems it appropriate, he will terminate the VSC procedure by deploying the SC procedure.”

The changes for 2024 don’t seem too drastic and should all improve the flow of the race weekend. We should also see improved competition for pole position in qualifying and potentially podiums. The 2024 season kicks off in 28 days for the Qatar 1812 km.

In preparation for the start of the 2024 World Endurance Championship season Peugeot has announced their driver lineup for 2024. Mikkel Jensen, Nico Müller and Jean-Eric Vergne will team up in the No. 93 PEUGEOT 9X8. Paul Di Resta, Loïc Duval and Stoffel Vandoorne will share driving duties in the No. 94 sister car entry.

Olivier Jansonnie – Peugeot Sport technical director: “The standard in the FIA WEC is such that you cannot afford to neglect any aspect and so we have worked during the off-season on trying to improve everywhere we can. The make-up of the crews is an important piece of the jigsaw and having studied race and test data, we were convinced we could fine-tune the line-ups. We are lucky to have six highly talented drivers, so we decided to optimise each car by grouping together the drivers in terms of their set-up preferences, the aim being to deliver improved performance.”

Ferrari AF Corse announced back in November that they received approval for a third Hypercar entry for the 2024 World Endurance Championship. The driver line up for their third Hypercar entry is now complete with the addition of Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye. Schwartzman and Ye will join Robert Kubica in the No. 83 Ferrari 499P Hypercar. All three drivers provided comments on the announcement.

Robert Kubica

“After winning the FIA WEC LMP2 class in 2023 I am very happy to be able to drive the AF Corse Ferrari 499P this season. I will share the car with Robert and Yifei, two very fast drivers, but it’s going to be very challenging, as the starting grid is very tough. We have everything we need to do well, but we must also recover a lot of ground, since we all have little experience behind the wheel of the 499P. It will be a difficult and demanding challenge, but at the same time it’s all very exciting. We will have to try to keep our feet on the ground and do our best. Especially at the beginning of the season it will not be easy, but we will try to maximize track time to gain crucial experience. I am happy to join AF Corse, a team that I have seen racing and winning for many years in many different categories.”

Robert Shwartzman

“I am very happy to debut in the FIA WEC with the Ferrari 499P of AF Corse together with Robert and Yifei. We are feeling confident and ambitious. Confident about the job we will do with the team, and ambitious about the results we want to achieve this year. We will have little time and many things to focus on, but I will give my best to adapt to the car, to the team and everything as fast as possible. I am confident that the season will be positive and I am really motivated to get good results, with the ambition to win the world title. There is a race that I am especially looking forward to, however, and that is the 24 hours of Le Mans. It is a race that has always been in my dreams and I will do everything possible to try to win – I will give my all to do so.”

Yifei Ye

“It is truly a privilege to be named as one of the drivers in the 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P. AF Corse has achieved enormous success across different championships in endurance racing and I’m super excited to start my role of official Ferrari driver with them in the World Endurance Championship and in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Last year the competition was already extremely stiff and this year, with 19 hypercars, it will be even more fierce but, looking at the performance of the team in 2023, I have no doubt that we will be competitive. Together with my two new team-mates, we have experience, speed and youth. I can’t wait to get my first taste of the 499P and start the preparation for the new season that is coming very quickly, but we will be ready to fight for the podium and victory, hopefully right from the first race in Qatar.”

Ferrari AF Corse has announced they will not be making any changes to the 2023 driver lineup as the team heads into the 2024 season. Antonello Coletta, Global Head of Endurance and Corse Clienti commented: “The choice to retain the drivers who competed last year with the 499Ps for the Ferrari – AF Corse team in the 2024 FIA WEC season reflects a commitment to continuity… Together we have gained experience as we continue to develop our car and demonstrate its potential. Building upon these foundations, we look forward to the now imminent 2024 season with optimism, renewing our confidence in our drivers.”

Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen will continue to share driving duties in the number 50 Ferrari 499P Hypercar.

Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans winners; will start in the number 51 sister car.

Today it was announced that Jenson Button will make a return to the World Endurance Championship as a driver for Hertz Team JOTA for the 2024 season. He will debut on track at the season opener in Qatar in March. Button had the following words regarding the move.

Button Responds to questions from the FIA Media

After receiving a warm welcome Button said, “Thanks – this is a fantastic opportunity with Hertz Team JOTA. It’s a team that I’ve watched for several years and I’ve got many friends that work for the team. It was such an exciting opportunity to race in a championship that is one of the most competitive categories in motorsport right now… and to do it with a privateer team fighting against the big manufacturers is very exciting.”

FIA: Why did you make the choice to return to WEC now?

Button: “Well, I’ve been racing since F1 – I raced in Japan in Super GT, I was in WEC in 2018. I’ve tried loads of different things… the 24 Hours of Daytona too but you feel that you don’t maximise what you can achieve with one-off races. And you don’t get the best out of yourself doing it that way. So, I wanted to do a full season. You don’t get a lot of practice pre-season and I wanted to do a whole season to see what we could achieve in WEC this year.”

FIA: You raced in the final IMSA round last season with the Porsche 963, how did that go?

Button: “Yes, I did Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. I had one day of testing before the race and I got used to driving the car pretty quickly but it’s all the tech stuff that takes a while to get used to. It feels like there’s 20 switches for one thing, but they all do it slightly differently. These cars are very clever – they learn as you drive around as well. You can pinpoint certain corners of the data that you want something to change and it will change without touching anything  – very clever but very complex. It takes a different type of driver. There’s skill on track but you need to be an expert in engineering as well.”

FIA: In 2024, you’ll enter your third 24 Hours of Le Mans – how much do you enjoy that event?

Button: “I used to watch Le Mans back in the 80s and so to go back to Le Mans and race in the WEC is exciting. That team atmosphere that you have is very different to F1 where your team-mate is the first person you’ve got to beat. In endurance racing, you’re working with your team-mates to develop the car to win races. Everyone thinks Le Mans is just an endurance race and people will take it easy – but it’s not, everyone drives flat out for 24 hours!

Plus everyone has already been awake for 40 or so hours – you don’t just wake up and go racing. It’s emotional and that’s the word I would use to describe Le Mans. Whether you win or lose, crash or finish – you just want to cry! You’ve been through so much with your team-mates, you just celebrate the end of the race. That’s what I love about it. It’s a tough race on driver and machine. I can’t believe I’ve only actually raced there twice but I’m looking forward to adding to that tally over the next few years.”

After retiring from Formula 1 in 2016 Button can’t seem to stay away from the race track. This is definitely a testament to his passion for the sport and it looks like he has unfinished business. After his positive drive at Petit Le Man in Atlanta for the IMSA season finale. We expect Button to come back to the World Endurance Championship with full steam as Hertz JOTA will be looking to shake off the rust for a 2024 championship run.

Due to shipping logistical problems the 24 Hours of Dubai will be postponed. The decision was fueled by the large number of cars that would not arrive in Dubai on time for the event that was originally scheduled for January 13-15th 2024. The date has been pushed to January 27th and 28th which will be in direct conflict with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener, the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona; one of the most prestigious racing events of the year.

Ultimately teams who had planned to enter both races will have to make some tough decisions in terms of what is possible regarding staffing and car entries. Considering the races are on complete opposite sides of the world we imagine the decision to reschedule the 24 Hours of Dubai on a competing weekend will negatively impact the event.

The source of the delay is reported to be due to attacks on shipment vessels by Iranian raiders in the Red Sea. The attacks are said to be related to the Israel-Gaza war that has recently flared up in intensity. With no end to that conflict in site it may be difficult to justify forgoing the Rolex 24 which has no issues in terms of access. It is yet to be determined the full impact of this delay. We will report back when more information is available. As of now the Heart of Racing Team is the only team that has confirmed entry into both the 24 Hours of Dubai and Rolex 24.

Edoardo Mortara said: “I am super happy to be joining Lamborghini Squadra Corse, which is allowing me this incredible opportunity to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours and the World Endurance Championship, both of which I have wanted to take part in for a long time. It is a very proud moment for me, and I hope we can achieve some good results next season.”

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing has switched up the style palette for 2024 as they ditch the dominant white livery for a more blacked out design. The design have more of an edgy presence to them which seems to be the direction many teams are headed for in 2024. Bold and definitive seems to be the new look.

The reveal came on the same day the team announced their 2024 motorsport team setups. The announcement came from “Morizo” (Chairman Akio Toyoda), Tomoya Takahashi, President of GAZOO Racing Company, and the drivers leading the TGR activities in Japan joined the attendees. He gave the following speech.

Chairman Akio Toyoda’s Speech on the 2023 Season

“In the 2023 season, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing won eight titles!

Morizo hates to lose too often…
Therefore I am as delighted as you could expect with eight titles.
I’m so happy! To the team, to the drivers, and to the fans, thank you so much! Now the phrase “hate to lose” has become our slogan.

In Rally Finland, Kalle Rovanperä said to me “We hate to lose” after he went off couse and showed that we never give up. Not only the drivers, but also everyone in the whole team hates to lose!
I felt that this common understanding is the secret to our strength!

Why do I hate to lose too often? The other day, I looked back at my past.
I remembered a scene at the Nurburgring when I was being overtaken by other cars. This scene was the origin of my ‘hate to lose’ mentality! This scene was the origin of my ‘hate to lose’ mind! The cars that overtook me were new vehicles developed by European manufacturers…and I was driving an 80 Supra, which had already gone out of production and sales…I felt that the cars that overtook me were saying “Toyota will never make such a car like this…” It’s frustrating to remember even now… This frustration was my origin.

Since then, I have been determined to make a car like that! I have been working hard to achieve this.
That’s the reason I’ve continued my driving training.
Even though I am not an engineer, I wanted to participate in car development somehow, which is why I took action.”

Toyoda Continued

“It took almost 20 years, and now I really have a lot of friends.
Not only drivers but also engineers and mechanics.
We share our frustrations… and we fight in motorsport.
We are all friends trying to make a car that was said to be “impossible” to make at the time.

To win in motorsports, you have to make a car that is easy to drive together.

I believe that the eight titles are exactly the result of our ability to make such cars.”