Ferrari caused a stir at the WEC finale in Bahrain with an internal team collision – Ferrari technical boss Cannizzo “wants to avoid something like that” – Fuoco is understanding
The two Ferrari 499P cars from AF Corse battled for the podium for a long time at the season finale of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) – even in a direct duel on the track. This led to awkward scenes that every team boss dreads: Antonio Fuoco and Alessandro Pier Guidi touched several times, but fortunately remained unscathed.
“That’s something we don’t like,” Ferrari technical director Ferdinando Cannizzo is honest after the race. “Let’s say it was a kind of misunderstanding.” Fuoco had the warmer tires on his 51,” Fuoco admits. “I came into turn 7 with more speed and had Ale [Pier Guidi] in front of me.” Because the Italian didn’t know which way his team-mate was going, he opted for the right-hand side
Ayo @FerrariHypercar, what’s the strat here?WEC 8HBahrain pic. twitter.com/qfaiWFTWvq
– Chris Aurelio (@GTRainYT) November 4, 2023
“That was a mistake,” Fuoco has to admit. “But the fact is that we are very united as a team. We’ve already cleared the air and now we’re all looking to the future together.” Cannizzo also confirms: “We’ve cleared that up, because we don’t want that. Of course, we try to avoid that. But at the same time, every rider wants to be at the front. “
Technical problems with the Ferrari 51
In the end, the 51 Ferrari lost out anyway because James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Pier Guidi were unable to match the pace of their team-mates due to a problem with the shock absorbers. “We had a problem with the rear shock absorbers,” revealed Cannizzo. “We still have to find out, because they lost quality as a result.”
Unfortunately, both shock absorbers on the rear axle were directly affected. “We have to analyze that,” says the Ferrari technical director, giving his team some homework for the winter break. Pier Guidi was not able to get the problem under control: “He was struggling. “
“We brought the pit stop one lap forward and tried to get a bit more grip at the rear to see if we could gain anything,” says Cannizzo. However, this year’s Le Mans winners dropped back to fifth place behind the 6 Penske Porsche.
Podium success for the Ferrari 50
For the sister car of Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, things went much better. The trio finished third and celebrated another podium finish. Cannizzo rejects claims that the two Ferrari 499P cars were running with different set-ups.
“We drive what we have optimized,” explained the Italian. “The set-up is what we developed during the test here in September. The conditions were a little different back then, a little warmer.” However, this could have proved to be an advantage because Ferrari was “a little more conservative” with the set-up.
“I think we were the best car today [on Saturday] in terms of tire degradation because if you look at the data, I think we were able to set very consistent times from the first lap to the last lap of the stint, even the second stint. “
Tire wear as the key to podium success
“The decision on how we set up the car and the way we managed the car in all the races was good,” said Cannizzo, delighted with the 499P’s successful debut season. At the finale in Bahrain, Ferrari had no problem with tire wear, only with the basic pace.
“If you look at the consistency we have, it’s pretty good,” says the Ferrari technical director with satisfaction. After the disastrous race in Fuji, Ferrari “worked hard to understand how to improve and reduce tire wear on tracks like Bahrain, where the asphalt is very aggressive to the tires.”
“I think our cars were very good to the tires,” Cannizzo believes he has found the reason for the good result at the WEC finale in Bahrain. “It was definitely down to how we handled the tires and how we stopped the cars. “
