Why Ferrari is ending its 50-year top-flight sportscar exile

By:

Gary Watkins

Feb 25, 2021, 8:47 AM

Making a return to top-flight sportscar racing after 50 years away, Ferrari will enter the Le Mans Hypercar ranks in 2023. The Italian marque denies the link with Formula 1's new cost cap that frees up resources, but it's certainly no coincidence...

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A bright new future for the top flight of sportscar racing. Massively reduced costs. Prototype machines that can be made to look like their road-going brethren. And a surplus of resources from its Formula 1 programme becoming available. The stars have aligned for Ferrari's long-awaited return to the pinnacle of sportscar racing as a factory.

Everything came together for the decision that preceded Wednesday's announcement of the Italian manufacturer's bid to start trying to add to its tally of nine outright victories at the Le Mans 24 Hours from 2023. It seems it is just a happy coincidence that its first factory assault with a prototype will happen half a century on from its last such campaign in 1973 with the 312PB three-litre Group 6 car.

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Gary Watkins

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Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.