Ferrari last won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright in 1965. For the next fifty years, the Prancing Horse was absent from the top class of endurance racing, concentrating its factory efforts on Formula One while privateer teams carried the Ferrari name in GT categories. In October 2022, at the Ferrari Finali Mondiali, the 499P was unveiled — a Le Mans Hypercar with a twin-turbocharged V6 engine paired with a front-axle electric motor, producing a regulated maximum of 500 kW. Ferrari was coming back.

The 499P made its competitive debut at the 2023 1000 Miles of Sebring, the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. AF Corse, Ferrari’s racing partner since 2006, managed the cars on track. Two entries: the number 50 driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen, and the number 51 driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi — Ferrari’s Formula One reserve driver. At Sebring, the number 50 qualified on pole. The car finished third. Fast, but not yet a winner.

Le Mans 2023 was the Centenary edition — one hundred years since the first 24-hour race at the Circuit de la Sarthe. 325,000 spectators attended. Ferrari qualified first and second. The race itself was fought against Toyota, Cadillac, and Porsche across 24 hours that included torrential rain and multiple safety car periods. The number 51 car of Pier Guidi, Calado, and Giovinazzi led for the final 55 laps. With twenty-five minutes remaining, the car came in for its last fuel stop. The engine would not restart. The pit crew held. The system reset. The engine fired. Pier Guidi drove the final stint and crossed the line 1 minute 21 seconds ahead of the Toyota number 8. Per tradition, the church bells rang in Maranello.

The Ferrari 499P has now won Le Mans three consecutive times: number 51 in 2023, number 50 in 2024, and the privateer AF Corse number 83 — driven by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Phil Hanson — in 2025. It is the first privateer victory at Le Mans since 2005. In the 2025 WEC season, the number 51 also won at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps. The 499P has established Ferrari as the dominant force in the current era of endurance racing.

This photograph captures the Ferrari 499P number 51 at speed through the Villeneuve Turn at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola during the FIA World Endurance Championship. Luca Crotti uses the panning technique to hold the car in focus while the circuit dissolves around it. The aerodynamic complexity of the Hypercar — the splitter, the dive planes, the diffuser channels — is visible in a single frame. On aluminium, the red of the bodywork and the motion-blurred background gain a metallic depth that makes the image feel faster than paper can.