A fairytale? No, this is the Ferrari that wins. Legendary! For the third year in a row, the 499P has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the past two years with the official “red” cars and this time with the “yellow” one, the customer car from AF Corse. Whoever says it is impossible to build a winning Italian team is completely wrong: Antonello Coletta’s staff have proven it. Four races in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, four victories.
The Prancing Horse, through its dominance at Le Mans, has essentially secured the Endurance world title, considering its 202 points versus Toyota’s 91 and Porsche’s 80. In the 2025 season a double Formula 1 title was expected, namely the Drivers and Constructors championships, but instead, the satisfaction is coming from the World Endurance Championship squad, which proves to be strong, highly organized, and united.
President John Elkann and chief executive officer Benedetto Vigna chose to go to Le Mans rather than Canada, where vice president Piero Ferrari was present to represent the brand. A divergence that explains the situation more than any words could. It is as if there are two Ferrari worlds inside Maranello: the losing one in Formula 1 and the winning one in World Endurance Championship. And the top management has clearly chosen sides, preferring to applaud sports cars rather than single-seaters.
The Italian press has been accused of launching a harsh attack on team principal Frederic Vasseur before the Canadian Grand Prix round in Montreal: it is said that the continued lack of results, after the hope of championships, could lead to a non-renewal of the team principal’s contract, which expires at the end of the 2025 Formula 1 season. Frederic Vasseur responded with frustration, blaming those journalists who he claimed wish harm upon Ferrari. The Frenchman asked the drivers to close ranks, and both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc made themselves available to present an image of unity.
Frederic Vasseur said he was not so much worried about his own position , pointing out that there is plenty of time to discuss the renewal, but rather about the attacks on his team members, who have families, wives, and children, and who could be destabilized by criticism after all the hard work done to build a functioning system. That may be true, but the doubts have arisen because the “Napoleon of Draveil” no longer enjoys the full support of the John Elkann-Benedetto Vigna duo.
A single statement from ownership would have been enough to restore confidence in a manager who, three years ago, was handed the keys to the Sporting Division and given a blank slate to build the Racing Department in his own image.
“Today is a great victory for Ferrari,” said John Elkann, “for everyone who works here, for all its facets. Ferrari has won by working together, showing how unity leads to extraordinary results. Le Mans is a special moment for those who love motorsport, and what has been achieved borders on the heroic. Over the past three years, three different cars and nine drivers have shown what teamwork means. I thank everyone at Ferrari: winning Le Mans three times in a row is a historic achievement that makes us proud and honors our founder, Enzo Ferrari.”
Not a single mention of Formula 1, only a deafening silence that fuels rumors and lends weight to the idea that the media coverage was not exaggerated, as someone on TV tried to suggest, but rather the result of well-founded analysis. The SF-25 is a flawed car, and the changes needed to fix this difficult season are slow in coming. In other words, there are few ideas and they are confused.
All this, while on the other side of the road, success keeps arriving. 1,500 people are not enough to build two winning single-seaters, but 150 are enough to dominate the Hypercar class. Of course, the commitments and budgets are vastly different, but the contrast is striking—because the company is the same.
Formula 1 loses, the World Endurance Championship wins. True, you can’t compare apples and oranges, but the company’s DNA should be consistent. Now Antonello Coletta is being pulled in the direction of reorganizing the Sporting Division. The Italian manager sees a move to the Formula 1 division as a nightmare and wants to remain in the fortress he has expertly built, preferring that Frederic Vasseur continue the work he began.
The answers, therefore, do not depend on the Italian media but on Ferrari’s top management, who for now prefer to remain silent.
The fairytale? It is the story of Robert Kubica, the Polish ace who took Chinese driver Ye Yifei and British rookie Phil Hanson by the hand to bring them to the top step at Le Mans. He had seen the red dream vanish in 2012, when he should have raced in Formula 1 and never became an official Ferrari driver. Now he has challenged the 499Ps “50” and “51,” tormenting the red cars with a race pace that was simply too much for others to handle, despite driving almost with one hand. A masterclass that erases any handicap with passion, skill, knowledge, and speed. The 40-year-old from Krakow has shown what it truly means to #BeFerrari. And some should take note.
— see video above —
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