It’s been a long time since we’ve seen anything like this: Ferrari triumphs in both the Formula 1 race in Monaco and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the 2024 motorsport season
Ferrari has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, repeating last year’s victory. It was the eleventh success for the traditional brand from Maranello in the endurance classic in France
There is something truly historic, however, that is only a small side note in the Ferrari press release on the Le Mans victory: For the first time since 1934, a manufacturer has managed to win both the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula 1 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the same motorsport season.
A few weeks before Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen were crowned Le Mans winners in the Ferrari 499P, Charles Leclerc had triumphed in the Ferrari SF-24 in Monaco
In a world before Formula 1
90 years ago, the world of motorsport looked somewhat different: Formula 1 as a racing series did not yet exist, but Grands Prix like the one in Monaco did. However, where 78 laps are now driven for a total distance of around 260 kilometers, the drivers completed 100 laps for just under 320 kilometers in 1934.
The 1934 Monaco Grand Prix was a complete success for Alfa Romeo: the brand not only provided the man in pole position with Carlo Felice Trossi, but also the drivers at the front of the race with Guillaume Moll and Louis Chiron: a double victory! Ferrari 2024 didn’t quite manage that: behind Leclerc and McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz “only” finished third in the second SF-24.
Alfa Romeo also achieved something extraordinary at Le Mans in 1934: Luigi Chinetti and Philippe Etancelin had a lead of around 180 kilometers (!) over the second-placed Riley 12/6 MPH Racing of Jean Sebilleau and Georges Delaroche after 24 hours in their Alfa Romeo 2.3L S8 – after Chinetti had successfully plugged a leak in his car’s fuel tank with chewing gum.
Alfa Romeo ahead of Ferrari in Formula 1
Alfa Romeo also took victory in the first round of the new automobile world championship – today’s Formula 1 – in 1950: Giuseppe Farina won the Grand Prix in Silverstone in an Alfa Romeo 158, but not against Ferrari: Enzo Ferrari’s racing team only entered the new racing series at the second world championship round in Monaco – and finished second there with Alberto Ascari behind Juan Manuel Fangio in another Alfa Romeo.
But unlike Ferrari, Alfa Romeo soon disappeared from Formula 1 again: after first Farina and then Fangio had become world champions in an Alfa Romeo (there was no constructors’ championship at the time), the Italian brand withdrew from the championship. This plunged Formula 1 into a crisis: due to a lack of manufacturers, the 1952 and 1953 World Championships were held for Formula 2 cars. And that was the big moment for Ascari and Ferrari.
Alfa Romeo is coming back
While Ferrari competed in Formula 1 without interruption, Alfa Romeo only returned as an engine supplier in 1970 and was once again represented by an Alfa Romeo team from 1979, but without being able to build on its old successes. It ended after 1985. And from 2018 to 2023, Alfa Romeo acted as title sponsor for the Sauber team: a pure marketing campaign with no technical contribution.
Ferrari, on the other hand, was not always represented at Le Mans: After 1973, the team withdrew from the works side, and for many years only privateer projects and later Ferrari cars in the smaller classes were seen at the Sarthe. Ferrari made its comeback in the top category 50 years after its withdrawal in 2023, but the Monaco victory was snatched by Max Verstappen in the Red Bull
