Three Ferrari 499P aiming for victory at Barcelona

WECHyperCar

Oct 15

The Spanish circuit welcomes round seven of the 2026 season, replacing the race originally scheduled for Qatar.

Ferrari sits third in the Manufacturers’ World Championship on 115 points, 54 behind the leaders. With no pressure of a title fight, both Ferrari-AF Corse 499Ps (#50 and #51) and the yellow AF Corse 499P (#83) heads into the 6 Hours of Barcelona, aiming for outright victory after #50 won Lone Star Le Mans at Austin.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Circuit of The Americas. Ferrari-AF Corse 499Ps #50

Usual lineups

The 6 Hours of Barcelona will feature the two 499P cars, #50 and #51, entered by the official Ferrari – AF Corse team, alongside the #83 run by privateer team AF Corse. Reigning World Drivers’ Champions Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi will line up in the #51 car after their 10th-place finish at the 6 Hours of Fuji, intent on scoring as many World Championship points as possible. Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, who retired from the race in Japan, will drive the sister 499P, #50. Prancing Horse official drivers Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson will share the #83 with Robert Kubica. The trio finished outside the top 10 at Fuji.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Circuit of The Americas. Ferrari-AF Corse 499Ps #51

A solid experience of Barcelona’s track

Not only does Scuderia Ferrari know the Spanish track perfectly, having conducted multiple private testing sessions there. AF Corse - Ferrari can also count on a solid technical base from sister teams in GT and F1.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Circuit of The Americas. AF Corse 499Ps #83

Still a chance in the World Drivers’ Championship

In the World Drivers’ Championship standings, Pier Guidi, Calado and Giovinazzi are seventh on 59 points, 30 behind the leaders.

Alessandro Pier Guidi #51: “It’s difficult to make predictions ahead of the 6 Hours of Barcelona, as we’ve never raced at this circuit. Our championship challenge has become even tougher since Fuji, but as long as we have a mathematical chance of winning the titles, we’ll do everything we can to close the gaps in the standings and arrive at Monza still in contention.”

James Calado #51: “Heading into the penultimate race of the year, the entire team shares one goal: to avoid mistakes, give our all and approach the 6 Hours of Barcelona with complete confidence in our abilities. Without that approach, it’ll be hard to perform well and keep our title hopes alive until Monza, which is what we’re aiming for.”

Antonio Giovinazzi #51: “We’re approaching the 6 Hours of Barcelona with our usual determination, knowing we need to get everything right, from the first qualifying session to the final lap of the race, to achieve a great result. That’s our aim after a difficult trip to Japan. I expect an exciting but tough challenge in Spain, and the weather could make it even trickier, with rain possible on both Saturday and Sunday. I know Barcelona quite well, having done a great deal of testing there in single-seaters. I can’t wait to race there for the first time in the 499P.”

Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen are ninth, 35 points off the lead. Both tams need a win at Barcelona (25 points) and Toyota Racing not scoring points to stay in contention for the drivers’ title before the last round at Monza.

Antonio Fuoco #50: “Barcelona is a new track for all of us, as we’ve never raced there in Hypercars, so we don’t have much to go on. We’ve done everything we can in the Simulator to arrive in Spain with the best possible set-up for the circuit. After a difficult weekend in Japan, we’ll aim to perform at our best and approach the final two races of the year with absolute determination.”

Miguel Molina #50: “Racing the 499P at Barcelona for Ferrari is something truly special to me, and I’m sure this round will have an extra emotional edge. With the crowd behind us, we’ll be giving everything as a team to have the best race possible and leave Spain with as many championship points as we can, keeping our World Championship hopes alive until the final round at Monza.”

Nicklas Nielsen #50: “We’re heading to Spain to put Fuji behind us and get everything right as a team. The circuit is new to everyone, so finding the right set-up and adapting to the track will be an added challenge. But we’ve worked hard in the Simulator in Maranello to be ready when we take to the track.”

Ye, Hanson and Kubica are 16th, 58 points behind.

How the team prepares for a race.

The arrival of the 499P cars at the circuit is just one stage in the Ferrari – AF Corse team’s build-up to a race. Preparations for each FIA WEC round begin much earlier at Maranello, with a series of tasks that lay the groundwork for the race. “Preparing for a race involves three main stages. ‘Build’ and ‘Pre-Event’ take place at Maranello in the preceding weeks. The team then assembles at the circuit on the eve of Free Practice, before track activities get under way,” explains Giuliano Salvi, Ferrari Endurance Race Team & Track Operations Manager.

The first phase, “Build”, is a virtual construction of the car, during which “we gather all the requirements and bring the technical team together to share ideas and collect input from every department,” Salvi continues.

The team then determines its race strategies at the “Pre-Event” meeting. First, “we run offline simulations based on calculations of the car’s physical behaviour, without factoring in the drivers,” Salvi notes. “We then feed these data into the Simulator in a stage called ‘Driver-in-the-Loop’, because the driver is, of course, a key part of the process.”

Ferrari’s engineers organise dedicated Simulator sessions for each 499P, allowing the driver involved to prepare for the circuit hosting the next race. “We tailor the car’s set-up to the driver’s requirements and driving style, but there’s one key consideration: getting the best performance from the car requires a compromise that works for all three drivers in the crew,” Salvi explains.

Once the virtual build is complete, the data are sent to the workshop and “we begin fitting the components to the car so it can be shipped to the circuit for the race,” Salvi continues. “To perform well, we need an excellent working relationship within the team and between the team and the driver.The word that sums it all up is ‘trust’: both sides need to have complete faith in each other.” Source: Ferrari

Schedule

Friday 16 October

11:30 Free Practice 1

16:30 Free Practice 2

Saturday 17 October

LMGT3: 08:50 Free Practice 3. 11:50 Qualifying. 12:10 Hyperpole

Hypercar: 12:40 Free Practice 3. 15:40 Qualifying. 16:00 Hyperpole

Sunday 18 October

12:00 6 Hours of Barcelona