Ferrari 499P - Fuji 6 Hours Race - (WEC) 9th September 2023
The two Ferrari 499Ps competing in round six of the FIA WEC World Championship at the Fuji International Speedway, Japan had a pretty tough qualifying session, as reflected by the resulting sixth position (#51) and seventh position (#50).
At the start of qualifying the track was relatively dry; however, in the last part of the session, there was rain which hindered James Calado and Nicklas Nielsen, who were the two drivers selected to qualify in their final attempts to improve their 499P lap times.
Caldado finished sixth with a time of 1’28”991, whilst Nielsen completed the 15-minute time trial 72 thousandths behind.
On race day, The Ferrari – AF Corse team left Japan with a fourth and a fifth place secured by the hard working crews of the Ferrari 499P #50 with Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen and #51 of Pier Guidi-Calado-Giovinazzi.
It seemed that the AF Corse team took a rather cautious approach to their tire strategy but it was a safe option that worked to ensure a reasonable finish. Both cars started on the hard compound Michelin slick tires with #50 moving to medium compound during the last stint of the race.