Ferrari commits to WEC Hypercar class until end of 2029 season

Ferrari will remain in the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class until at least the end of the 2029 season. 

The newly-crowned 2025 WEC manufacturers’ and drivers’ title winner has revealed that it has added two years to its original commitment to the top class, in line with the extension of the current rules cycle announced at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June 2024. 

Ferrari sportscar racing boss Antonello Coletta said: “Our programme was born for five years from 2023 until ’27 because it was a cycle that the FIA defined in terms of rules. 

“Now the FIA has moved [the end of the cycle] to 2029, and for Ferrari it is confirmed that we go ahead until ’29.”

The new rules cycle announced last year by the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, which jointly run the WEC, allows manufacturers to continue with their existing machinery until 2029. 

That will allow Ferrari to race the 499P Le Mans Hypercar that ended a 50-year factory hiatus for the marque from prototype racing for another four years. 

The announcement in June ’24 represented an extension of the homologation of the existing cars, as distinct from the news delivered at Le Mans this year that the life of the Hypercar class will run through until the end of 2032. 

The target of the FIA and the ACO — with, it seems, universal support of the manufacturers — is to bring the LMH and LMDh rules together for the start of 2030 season. Coletta stressed Ferrari’s support for the convergence process, which kicked off with a first meeting in Paris in September. 

“If we have the same platform, it will be easier [to balance the cars] than today,” he said. But he stated that it is premature to discuss Ferrari continuing in Hypercar, almost certainly with a successor to the 499P, beyond the end of the current decade. “Now it is too early to speak about it, because we have nothing on the table, only a hypothetical new way,” he explained.  

The first meeting of the FIA, the ACO and the manufacturers, also attended by IMSA, decided only on the timeline for the introduction of the new rules and that it will work to combine elements of the LMH and LMDh rulesets. There had been a push to try to bring the LMH and LMDh rules together prior to 2030, but this was rejected as unworkable. 

Another proposal for a wholesale switch to LMDh rules was also rejected. Coletta again played down the prospect of the 499P programme being extended into the IMSA SportsCar Championship. 

“Not in the near future,” he said when asked about Ferrari racing its prototype in North America.  “I do not know in the long term, but at the moment we concentrate on the WEC.”

Ferrari set for unchanged Hypercar driver line-up in 2026 

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network

Ferrari looks certain to defend its WEC titles next year with an unchanged drive line-up.  Coletta stated that Ferrari is “very happy with our drivers” and that changes to the line-up of the factory Hypercar squad run by AF Corse is “not a matter on the table”. 

That follows his comments at Le Mans that there was “no intention to change anybody”. Contract extensions have been announced for five of the six Ferrari Hypercar drivers over the past year, the most recent late last month James Calado. 

Coletta confirmed that Ferrari stalwart Alessandro Pier Guidi, whose most recent new deal was announced early in 2024, is under contract for next year. No mention was made of the 2026 programmes for Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicklas Nielsen in the announcements on their continuation with the marque since the summer.

This is in line with normal Ferrari practice. Coletta explained that Ferrari would only formalise its plans for its drivers next year after the completion of this year’s campaign in Bahrain last weekend.

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— The Motorsport.com Team