Leclerc: To race Ferrari’s Hypercar ‘would be a dream’
After setting the pace in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s annual ‘Rookie Test’ in Bahrain just over a week ago, Arthur Leclerc has admitted it ‘would be a dream’ to get the opportunity to race Ferrari AF Corse’s 499P Hypercar in the future.
Leclerc has spent 2024 contesting the European Le Mans Series’ LMP2 category with Panis Racing, triumphing at Imola on the way to fourth in the overall standings alongside Alpine WEC regular Charles Milesi and Manuel Maldonado.
He is also a podium-finisher in the FIA Formula 2 Championship and a multiple race-winner in FIA Formula 3, so the 24-year-old was far from an unknown heading into the test – although the Hypercar was a very different proposition to anything he had driven before.
Due to his busy schedule – dovetailing his racing commitments with a development role for Ferrari’s Formula 1 team – Leclerc did not get much time to prepare for the opportunity prior to arriving at Bahrain International Circuit, which less than 12 hours earlier had brought down the curtain on another captivating WEC campaign. It didn’t hold him back.
Benefitting from the advice and support of fellow former Ferrari Driver Academy member Antonio Fuoco and the Italian’s team-mate in the #50 car, Nicklas Nielsen, the Monégasque ace completed 61 laps, focussing predominantly on long runs on old tyres before bolting on some fresher rubber towards the end of the day to see how the car reacted.
Despite revealing that he did not get a fully clear lap in due to the traffic, Leclerc nonetheless posted the quickest time of the 21 Rookies on-track, a tenth-of-a-second faster than nine-time motorcycling world champion Valentino Rossi in BMW’s Hypercar and a mere 78 thousandths shy of Nielsen’s benchmark in the Ferrari.
“It was a good day,” he acknowledged. “It felt really special to be in the 499P. Ferrari has been my dream team since I was young, and to drive the car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans was even better! The key at first was to get familiar with it, because it’s obviously completely different to the LMP2 that I’m used to driving – it’s heavier with more horsepower, and you can feel it’s really fast.
“The Hypercar requires a lot of precision – more so than in LMP2 – and if you make a small mistake, you pay straightaway in terms of lap time. It’s a bit more complex and challenging to drive, but the team gave me a lot of support and I felt quite good in the car. There was a huge amount of information to take in for my first day, so it was a learning process, but I’m quite happy with the job I did.
“Compared to the Formula 1 car, everything is completely different, but in both, you can really tell you are at the top level of motorsport. The team has done an amazing job with the 499P – it’s a car that gives you a lot of confidence to push. At Ferrari, it feels like there are absolutely no limits, and that’s what I love about working with them.
“I’m still not sure what I’m doing next year, but I really hope one day to race the Hypercar, whenever that is. I think you can see WEC is making huge progress, with a lot of manufacturers currently involved and Le Mans is obviously the most legendary race in the world alongside the Monaco Grand Prix and Indy 500. There is a lot that appeals to me about WEC.
“I would love one day to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans – even more so with Ferrari. Honestly, that would be a dream...”
