WEC: 1, 2 and 3, Ferrari dominate in Qatar! Here's why

Ferrari dominated the first round of the 2025 World Endurance Championship (WEC), placing all three of its cars on the podium. 1, 2, 3. On Friday, the three Ferrari 499Ps flew over the 1,812 km of Qatar, the opening round of the Endurance World Championship (WEC). After 10 hours of racing, the n°50 driven by the trio of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Niklas Nielsen won ahead of the semi-official n°83. The second "factory" 499P completed the podium.

The stopwatch doesn't lie

You only have to look at the timing tables to see the 499P's advantage on Friday. The fastest lap of the race was set by Italy's Alessandro Pier Guidi (Ferrari n°51) in the evening, in 1:41.259. The BMW n°15 was the only non-Ferrari to break the 1:42 barrier on the Losail track during the event.

With a scale weight of 1,037 kg of performance - compared with 1,065 for the Toyota GR010 - the 499Ps were clearly the fastest machines on the Qatari track, despite a few less horsepower.

A velocity in the big curves that made up for a few incidents during the race. The n°50 was harpooned by a BMW after two hours and thirty minutes of racing, at which point it lost first place.

Antonio Giovinazzi's n°51 suffered two penalties, dropping her to ninth place at dusk. The first was for an infringement during neutralization. The second was for speeding in the pit lane.

Better tire management

With its reputation as a "Michelin devourer", the 499P suffered less in Qatar than elsewhere. The very atypical Losail track helped. "Here, we suffer very little degradation, we have very consistent tires," explained Pierre Alves, director of endurance operations for Michelin, the sole manufacturer in the Hypercar category, before the start.

Remember that in WEC, heated blankets are forbidden. Warming up after a tire change is a crucial moment: "the three or four laps after leaving the pits determine the rest of the stint". A tire that is too badly treated at the start can see its surface deteriorate.
crumple, losing all effectiveness.

How do you make progress in this exercise? Firstly, by driving," explained Miguel Molina, one of the Ferrari drivers who won in Qatar, last year. But also by making greater use of all the tools you have in the car, by calculating differently the moments when you need to attack or manage".

Experience is crucial here. Like Toyota and Porsche, Ferrari is now one of the "veteran" teams in the WEC, with two full seasons in the championship and the input of data from a third semi-official car - #83 - driven by men with very different profiles.

What's more, the last evo joker - enabling big changes in performance - was recorded in the summer.
last season. The 499P therefore arrived in Qatar virtually unchanged from the end of last season. BMW, Peugeot, Porsche and Alpine all reworked their brakes, suspensions and engines over the winter. These three teams are still getting their bearings.

Cautious strategies

Here too, it's undoubtedly the fruit of experience. The AF Corse team, commissioned by Ferrari to run its Hypercars, chose cautious strategies during the race. Both cars started with four hard tires, while their rivals opted for the more comfortable rubber.
medium on their right flank.

Similarly, at the end of the race, the team mixed up its choices. At the last stop, Antonio Fuoco's n°50 kept its Michelin. The same applied to Robert Kubica's n°83. Alessandro Pier Guidi's n°51 changed rubber. This covered a number of scenarios in the event of neutralization... and made an on-track fight between the Ferraris in the final minutes less likely. This contrasted with the nervousness at Cadillac, where the two cars clashed during a neutralization.

A first since... 1972!

Back at the pinnacle of endurance racing two years ago, Ferrari scored its first hat-trick of the modern era in Qatar. The prancing horse's world championship success can be traced back to the 1,000 km Österreichring in 1972. Back then, the four 312 PBs took the first four places.
places in the Austrian event.

1,812 km Qatar 2025 (Losail)

1. Ferrari n°50 (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen) : 318 laps
2. Ferrari no. 83 (Hanson/Kubica/Ye): + 2.3 s
3. Ferrari n°51 (Calado/Giovinazzi/Pier Guidi): + 2.7 s
4. BMW n°15 (Magnussen/Marciello/Vanthoor): + 9.9 s
5. Toyota n°8 (Buemi/Hirakawa/Hartley): + 19.6 s