FERRARI's Comeback at the SPA 6 Hours (Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar)

the spa six hours is the final major test before the 24 Hours of Le Mans in this test will be especially important for Ferrari because back in the 1960s Ferrari and Le Mans were synonymous but after successive losses to Ford then porsche and finally the French favorite Matra Ferrari left the sport but this year in 2023 Ferrari will be attempting to make its long-awaited return to the top step of the overall podium however despite flashes of Brilliance this season Ferrari has gotten off to a mixed start they've been able to get ahead of their fellow hypercar newcomers at Porsche and Cadillac but haven't quite been able to catch up to the dominant Toyota gazu Racing [Music] but we can jump on board with Antonio giovannazzi in the number 51 car as he warms his tires before the start of this race we can see by looking on the right side of the screen that he is starting on wet tires on this damn track but Mike Conway in the number seven Toyota up front has chosen dry tires to start on Ferrari will have the pace Advantage early on in this race but as the race goes on that Advantage will shift to Toyota because Ferrari will have to pit earlier to get off these wet tires so to make this strategy work Ferrari has to push the pace early on and build a huge gap the number seven and eight Toyotas behind and as they take a green flag the Ferrari is hard on the power and he's already looking up the inside of this number seven Toyota driven by Mike Conway he breaks late into the Lost Source hairpin is able to make it through on the number seven Toyota already into first place after starting third on the grid but he has to press the advantage early on because every lap that goes by the track will dry out more and more and the advantage will shift more and more in Toyota's favor and as it comes over Radeon oh Mike Conway gets a huge slide and that Toyota has to come out of the throttle and that allows the brand new 38 gold jota Porsche to flash by and until it come there is just absolutely no grip aboard that number seven Toyota in one of the peugeots is going to flash by as well the Toyota right now is on the wrong tires and Ferrari need to press their advantage as much as they can but we can see on this straightaway jovanazi moves to the left side of the circuit the damper part of the track to help cool off his wet tires this is not a good sign for Ferrari already just half a lap into the race jovenazzi is concerned that these wet tires are overheating [Music] as if that wasn't already bad enough the pace car is going to come out and slow down the entire field Ferrari did have the pace advantage over Toyota but now there's a safety car that entire Advantage is going to be nullified and as they get ready to go back to green we're going to see the entire field has now bunched up behind numbers 50 and 51 Ferraris [Music] but as the race goes green and jovanazi hits the throttle one more time the gold Remains the Same as the previous stint to build as big a gap as he can to the number 7 Toyota as we jump back aboard the number seven Toyota of Mike Conway he is all over the back of this Peugeot as they come out of stavolo and is able to easily find his way by under acceleration these dry tires are coming to Mike Conway and he's going to make another move on the 38th jota Porsche and then as he exits Lacombe and heads into ravage he is going to dive up the inside of that number two Cadillac and now we'll begin to chase down the two Ferraris ahead as they head into cool this Toyota is closing in rapidly on the two Ferraris in front we can see as it goes through pool that 50 car ahead of Nicholas Nielsen just has no grip left in the tires he's gonna look to defend on the number seven Toyota but there is no chance and Mike Conway sales passed into second place the crossover has already come and passed these dry tires are now so much faster than the wets Antonio is pushing as hard as he can as he goes wide at that Apex to keep up the minimum speed through the corners but there is just no grip left in his wet tires they are completely overheated as Mike Conway gets a better run coming out of Stabilo looks to make a pass along this straight but gets squeezed by Antonio giovannazzi barely avoiding contact jovanazzi is able to hold his 51 ahead for one more corner but it's just a matter of time before Conway makes his way past now going to the bus stop Conway is going to go wide into the second element look for the cutback on jovanazi gets hard on the power and is through back into the lead of the race with jovanazi struggling on his wet tires and still needing to make a pit stop to get onto his dries you can see Mike Conway is wide going through lestore's hairpin jovenazzi is able to keep that tighter line but Conway is already gone [Music] and we're gonna flash ahead to the end of lap where Jill Nazis lost a further two positions down into fourth place but is finally going to pit for some dry tires comes into his pit box Nails his marks and we can look to the right side and see those steaming wet tires are completely destroyed and his team is going to bolt on a fresh set of slick tires but despite Joe Nazi being on these brand new slicks it is not going to be smooth sailing for him and that is because the wec has disallowed Tire warmers for this season so with the temperatures being so cold and the track being so damp still he has absolutely no grip as he goes out on track we're gonna see he's barely crawling oh hold on the camel's straight can't even get to Full Throttle as he goes into ravage we can see how early he's breaking it looks like he's behind a safety car but no this is him pushing as hard as he can we can look to the right side and see a GT Porsche flashes by and a Peugeot as well there is just no grip in this hyper car and he's literally slower than the GT cars now as it comes out of stavolo he gets hard on the power and has a massive massive tank slapper as he gets onto the straight another GT Porsche and the Cadillac are going to both flash by this is really painful for Antonio giovannazzi and was going to make it especially painful is the number seven Toyota is now catching up and is looking to put this 51 car a lap down as they go through Lacombe that Ferrari though has a big moment through the left-hander in the comb just has absolutely no grip on those freezing cold tires and Mike Conway is going to flash through putting jovanazi a lap down just seven minutes after he was leading the race we're gonna flash ahead to the end of giovannazzi's double stint on these slick tires though where he was finally able to get them up to temperature and now finds himself in fourth position but unfortunately the team is going to be dealt another stroke of bad luck because they suffered a broken right wheel during this full course yellow and will have to make an emergency Pit Stop to change the tire this means they'll pit once to change that tire and then again on the next lap to replace all of the tires fill the car up with fuel and switch over from jovanazi to Alessandro Pierre guidi so as Pierre greedy pulls away from his pit box he's going to find himself back in 10th place and looking once again to fight his way forward through the field but before he worries about that he first has to worry about these freezing cold tires as he nearly sends the car off the track coming out of the pits but he is able to get these tires up to temperature more quickly than his teammate and is already chasing down the pale blue flicken house which is a Ninth Place [Music] he is now fully all over the rear of this clicking house which is on cold tires and looks to the inside but there is no room there now coming to the left-hander all over the rear of this clicking house looks to the inside and sends it late on the brakes finding his way up into Ninth Place and helping to revive and resuscitate the 51's hopes at a decent result this race the next car on his list is the number 38 jodakar which is on its first lap out of the pits again on freezing cold tires proving it's not just Ferrari that struggles with this coming through blanchima that 38 just has no grip and Pierre greedy flashes by Now setting his sights fully on this pujo ahead coming into the bus stop that Peugeot is slow through the mid corner and just cannot get on the power coming out of the left-hander that is one of the big issues of the pujo it has these smaller rear wheels it just doesn't seem to have the grip coming out of the corners that the other cars do and fortunately the 51 Ferrari will get its first bout of good luck and a full course yellow and then a safety car will come out and bunch up the field allowing it to catch up to the number two Cadillac which is now directly ahead as well as the five Porsche and as the green flies this 51 Ferrari is hard on the power and now chasing down this number two Cadillac and we can see here there's actually a line of traffic it's actually the number seven Toyota which is one lap ahead of the number five Porsche behind the number two Cadillac in front in the 51 Ferrari as Pierre greedy goes wide through blanchima as they break hard into the bus stop we can see they're now stuck behind Jose Maria Lopez and that number seven Toyota that number five Porsche is looking for any way past to try to build a gap between the two Cadillac and a 51 Ferrari behind but he is late on the brakes locks up and is wide and allows Alex Lin to swing through into fourth place as they head into a Rouge Dane Cameron's not getting up though and is looking to get in the draft but there's just nowhere to go before they enter oh Rouge he has to back out of it dabs the brakes as they go up the hill and then over ratty on that's going to give the 51 a run and Pierre greedy makes it around the outside of the five Penske Porsche up into fifth position now chasing down the number two Cadillac which is equally trying to get past this Toyota which is just holding him up on his worn tires as they come out of the bus stop Alex is gonna be hard on the power using all of the road on the exit trying anything he can to get past Jose Maria Lopez he's going to look to the inside on this Toyota as the head of low Source hairpin but Jose Maria Lopez holds it around the outside but Alex Lynn gets a better run through the Apex is a nose ahead by the exit but the Toyota is better on the acceleration than that number two Cadillac and is going to sneak ahead to Cadillac has to dab the brakes just as the Porsche did the lap before Pierre greedy is all over the curb on the left-hand side the curb on the right hand side is now safely in the draft of this number two Cadillac darts the left-hand side and sails past the number two Cadillac now chasing down this number seven Toyota to get the number 51 car back onto the lead lap [Music] and as they come through stavolo pure greedy is all over the back of this Toyota and gets a better exit onto the straightaway Jose Maria Lopez is going to make sure he does not look up the inside as they head into Blanche Mall the Ferrari once again suffers a lot of understeer to blanchima but is all over the back of this number seven Toyota trying to get back on a lead lap the number seven Toyota dives into pit Lane though leaving the number 51 Ferrari with the beautiful sight of an open track [Music] we're gonna flash ahead to the number 50 sister car and I want you to listen as he's exiting the pits oh suffers a massive tank slapper and then hits the wall taking the number 50 car that was in third place out of the race it's not only heartbreak for the number 50 car it's also another bout of bad news for the 51 because they're gonna have to do another double Pit Stop under this full course yellow that's going to place them behind the number five Porsche and the number two Cadillac as Alessandro Pierre greedy jumps out of the car and James collado jumps in once again the task is very simple for collado he has two cars to pass to bring Ferrari back onto the podium once again though exiting the pits is the most crucial part of his entire race oh just squirming as he tries to get on the power no grip on these freezing cold tires but he's able to get them up to temperature more quickly and we can see he's already chasing down the number two Cadillac which is dealing with this lmb2 prototype traffic these LP2 cars are actually relatively similar paced to the hyper cars so it's not so easy for them to get past these Lower Class Cars [Music] Richard Westbrook and the Cadillac is going to look to make it past this lmp2 before they get to lift source to try to build a gap to collado and the Ferrari behind but as you get through The Hairpin he just is not able to get the run those LP2 cards are just as quick through the corners as the hyper cars and sometimes even a little bit quicker and as they go into a Rouge he's going to look to make a pass on the lmp2 which does not yield Westbrook has to hit the brakes loses all momentum as he goes over Radeon and that allows collado and the 51 to fly past bringing the Ferrari back into fourth place it has been a dismal race for this 51 crew but finally a glimmer of hope as with a minute and 43 seconds left he can finally see this number five Porsche ahead and is gaining time and distance in every corner as this Porsche is struggling on old tires at the end of the race [Music] thank you [Music] as they head into the final chicane any Gap that Fred macavecki had and that Porsche is gone and as they head on to the final lap James collado just needs to pass this one car to get himself in the 51 crew onto the podium as they head into the source hairpin Fred Mecca Vicki is wide and the rear end slides as he tries to get hard on the power coming out of the first corner and heading into o Rouge the Ferrari has the run on the Porsche and through a Rouge makaveki is using every inch of track as it goes over Radeon but the Ferrari carries more speed to the mid corner and is in the draft of the number five Porsche ahead makaveki defense to the inside James Caldo Pops to the outside and sends it late on the break into Lacombe to take third position and to take a Podium for Ferrari as we see the Porsche behind is wriggling around as the rear tires are screaming for grip but despite this great finish for Ferrari the story of the race again is domination for Toyota and despite the Fantastic efforts from colado Pierre guidi and giovannazzi to salvage a result for this 51 crew the Ferrari team find themselves heading into Le Mans still wondering if they can find what it takes to match the dominant and near perfect Toyota gazu Racing if you made it this far I want to thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for all of your love all of your support it really means a lot to me even if I'm not able to respond to every message I promise I read all of them and they all make me smile so thank you guys so much for all your love and support I really appreciate it I hope you guys are as amped up for Le Mans as I am thanks again for watching I'll see you next time

Channel: Grooved Slick

Views: 108,276

Keywords: Ferrari 499P, Ferrari Le Mans, Ferrari Le Mans Hypercar, WEC SPA, WEC 2023, Le Mans 2023, Ferrari Le Mans 2023, Ferrari Hypercar, Hypercar Le Mans

Id: N14VG-qUrXY

Length: 16min 42sec (1002 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 03 2023