WEC | Ferrari: COTA victory should motivate closing the gap with Toyota

09/05/2024 06:00 AM

Ferdinando Cannizzo, head of Ferrari’s WEC racing division, stated that the team still has “a lot of work” to do to reduce the performance gap with Toyota, despite the recent win at the Lone Star Le Mans at CoTA.

Ferdinando Cannizzo’s comments came after Ferrari achieved its first victory in the FIA WEC Championship outside of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, thanks to the performance of the satellite team #83 AF Corse, driven by Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye, and Robert Kubica. This victory was aided by a penalty given to the #7 Toyota for failing to respect a yellow flag, which saw Kamui Kobayashi lose the race lead, dropping to second place with less than 45 minutes remaining.

“We still have a lot of work to do to close the gap with the competition,” said Ferdinando Cannizzo after the race. “Our rivals still have a wide margin. We saw it at Interlagos and again today. We need to work harder to reduce this gap.” -.he pointed out.

Ferdinando Cannizzo noted that Toyota quickly recovered after the penalty, overtaking competitors without losing precious time. “This is something we need to fix for the Fuji race,” he stated, highlighting the strength of the Japanese team’s performance during the race.

Despite a lackluster qualifying session that saw the #7 GR010 Hybrid start from ninth position and the sister car #8 from twelfth, Toyota proved to be the fastest car during the race. Kobayashi set the fastest lap of the race in the final stint, managing the entire session with medium compound tires.

“We didn't understand Toyota's performance in qualifying,” added Ferdinando Cannizzo. “They seemed rather cautious. Then in the race, Toyota immediately looked very sharp. They overtook easily, and that's what we expected from our simulations. They were the fastest on track and, above all, were able to manage performance and consumption in the right way to fight for the podium without taking risks.”

Ferrari dominated the early stages of the race at CoTA with their three cars in the top three positions, but the pole-sitting #51 dropped out of the race less than two hours in due to contact with a Lexus LMGT3, which caused irreparable transmission damage. The #50, driven by Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco, and Nicklas Nielsen, struggled compared to the other two 499Ps, eventually finishing third, 26 seconds from the lead, but never truly in contention for the win, and rarely matching the pace of the other two cars.

Ferdinando Cannizzo admitted he didn't have an immediate explanation for the struggles of the #50 when asked: “Overall, everything was in order, but it's true that the #50 had something to review because it wasn't as sharp as the other two cars,” he acknowledged.

“Looking at the pace in the final part of the race, there wasn't a difference, so we were able to maintain the gap. But surely, our rivals were faster than us.”

Although he conceded that Toyota had the advantage in terms of pace, Cannizzo emphasized that the loss of the #51 in the early stages removed Ferrari's chance to further complicate things for Toyota's #7. “We did everything perfectly with the #83,” he said. “We adjusted the strategy and it worked. But the regret comes from losing a car due to a stupid contact.”

“With three cars in the race until the end, we probably could have maximized the result even further. It's hard to say, but the results could have been different.”

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