Le Mans, 16 June 2024 – Encore of Ferrari at Le Mans. After the historic success of 2023, which came fifty years after the last one, the Maranello red team also triumphed in 2024, this time with car 50. Twelve months after Giovinazzi, another Italian driver climbs to the top step of the historic 24 hours , the race that everyone would like to win. Anthony Fire, together with Miguel Molina and Niklas Nielsen, took the 499P to the top of the endurance world, at the end of a heart-pounding race and decided by a great wall strategy. Once the fear of a door on the right side that had remained open had passed, the Ferrari garage got the strategy right in the last hour of the race, putting the car in the lead and calculating the fuel in detail to cross the finish line in front of the Toyota, which stopped after and failed to recover. Car 50, which pitted before the others, then managed the 40 second advantage and the management of fuel and energy by not having to make a final pit stop which would have made it lose the race. Anthony Fire So he fulfills his dream.
Fuoco: “A year of work for this victory”
The 24 hours of Le Mans is always a special race, anything can happen and in addition to performance you need reliability and luck, avoiding breakdowns, accidents or potentially dangerous situations. Furthermore, during the night, a long time behind the Safety Car and then the rain complicated everything but the strategy Ferrari number 50 was perfect: “I never thought before that I had already won it, we suffered until the finish line – the words of Fire – Anything can happen at Le Mans and the conditions in the final part of the race were very variable. The team did a great job, everything was perfect. We worked for a year to get back here and we did it.” As mentioned, a bit of fear came when with two hours to go the right door was left open and there was the need for a further pit stop. Chills for everyone, a bit like last year when the car Giovinazzi he didn’t want to restart during the last pit stop. In the end everything went well also thanks to cold and clear mechanics, so the 24 hours takes the direction of Maranello for the second time in two years. A fantastic and historic success, waiting for Red Bull to arrive to complicate the plans in the future. Today, however, it’s time to celebrate despite the fear of that open door: “Let’s say we were in a cold sweat – Fuoco’s story – But the guys in the pit were fantastic and very fast. We had a bit of an advantage over our opponents thanks to the strategy which was perfect. We are very happy.”
