The 2026 World Endurance Championship has been the first challenging season Ferrari has faced since the beginning of its Hypercar programme.
After winning the Le Mans 24 Hours on three consecutive occasions between 2023-25, the Prancing Horse had to settle for a fifth-place finish this time around.
In fact, Ferrari has scored just one victory so far in 2026 — a result it inherited after the race-leading #7 Toyota TR010 retired in the final hour due to mechanical gremlins.
Ahead of this weekend’s season finale at Monza, Ferrari’s technical director Ferdinando Cannizzo reviewed the team’s campaign while also crediting Toyota, which has returned to top form this year with the introduction of a revised car.
«Toyota has always proved to be a very strong team. Perhaps last year they took a little holiday… Joking aside, they have always done a good job of looking after both the car’s performance and race strategies,» he said.
«I think they probably didn’t expect Ferrari to be so strong right from its first season. They were caught a little off guard by that initially, but then they bounced back very well. This year they really gave us a hard time and were competitive throughout the entire season.
«I imagine that revisiting certain areas of the car also helped them, giving them a significant boost. I’d like to congratulate them once again because they have done a really good job. They have made virtually no mistakes throughout the season, so they certainly deserve what they have achieved this year.
«We can see that we have done a good job this year. There have been some more difficult moments, but we should still be pleased with what we have achieved. We have always been there, making life difficult for them, at least until the very end, as long as we were able to.
«Honestly, I expected Toyota to be strong. Perhaps they say otherwise for reasons I don’t know, but I expected them to be strong, just as I expected them to be stronger last year, when they actually weren’t. Having competitors in such good form is a positive thing because it pushes us forward and keeps us on our toes. The motivation is very strong, so our goal here is to do really well.»
Reliability has not helped
One of the reasons why Ferrari’s season has been less impressive than the previous ones has been reliability. Compared with recent years, the 499Ps have encountered more problems, slowing them down at crucial stages of races.
«Reliability is always an ongoing issue because the more you increase performance, the more you push every system in the car to its limits. You therefore always need to increase your reliability margins. That’s one aspect of it.
«This year, however, we have suffered from some very basic issues, small oversights, if you like. With the exception of one incident at Le Mans, I would say all the others were minor oversights made during the preparation of the cars for the race. This is something we know we need to improve because we did a good job in that respect last year.
«This year we have made a few mistakes, but the important thing is to be aware that there is always something you can pay more attention to. We have already introduced corrective measures during the season, and next year’s goal is to make all our processes more robust so that we can avoid slowing any of our cars down during a race.»
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen
Photo by: FIA WEC / DPPI
Impact of new homologation cycle
This year’s cars went through a new homologation cycle in a new wind tunnel, Windshear, in North Carolina. This may have affected the performance figures on track in some way, but Cannizzo does not believe this was the decisive factor behind Ferrari’s season.
«The fact that the new homologation window was introduced has, in some respects, put us at a disadvantage compared with last year. In theory, therefore, all manufacturers have lost some performance compared with the previous season.
«The question is understanding who lost more and who lost less, because we know very well that when a car is tested in a new wind tunnel, the surrounding conditions can have an influence. At Sauber’s facility, there were the walls; in the new tunnel, there is a free-stream configuration. There are interactions of this kind, but I don’t know how they affect the other manufacturers.
«We know the impact it had on us, which, as we said at the beginning of the season, was positive and transparent. However, we expected the effects to be broadly the same for everyone.
«It certainly had some influence because it meant that everyone lost their reference points from the previous season. We therefore had to revisit some set-ups and make both minor and more substantial adjustments. We had been working on relatively small changes, but even those had an impact on the distribution of aerodynamic loads across the car. This meant we had to review and optimise some of our set-ups.
«However, I don’t think it was ultimately a decisive factor in the final results. It cannot be used as an excuse to overlook the merits of our competitors.»
Rating the season
Although Ferrari’s season so far has been well below the standards set over the previous three years, Cannizzo still wanted to give the team a respectable rating, explaining the reasons behind his assessment.
«I would say that, since we haven’t won, I can’t give ourselves a particularly high mark. However, taking into account some of the mistakes we have made, I would give this season a seven out of 10, because we have certainly identified areas where we can improve.
«This is something that happens from time to time to people who have been involved in racing for a long time. When you win, you can sometimes go through a period of relaxation. We have worked extremely hard, and believe me, we have done everything we could to avoid becoming complacent.
«I think you have seen that we have never taken our foot off the gas. We have always shown determination and fought with everything we’ve got. We always want to win, but sometimes you lose focus on certain things, and that is what has happened on several occasions this year.
«There are small issues, not major or structural ones, so we should be confident that we have done a really good job. We are still in the fight, and there is no reason to despair. We remain a good team, an excellent team. The truth is that there are a lot of competitors, and the level of competition is extremely high, so we need to do an outstanding job to win.
«If we are not excellent in every single detail, we won’t achieve our goal. Our objective is to be excellent in every detail, and that is what we have to do. I would give everyone a seven for this season: satisfactory, but not outstanding.»
Taking stock of Ferrari’s Hypercar journey
Finally, with a significantly updated LMH set to arrive in 2027 compared with the current 499P, Cannizzo looked back at the team’s overall achievements across its four-year Hypercar programme.
«If you’re asking me instead to assess the overall journey, from where we started to where we are today, I wouldn’t want to sound arrogant, but I would certainly give us the highest possible mark. We have won Le Mans three times, we have won the championship, and our car has become a benchmark in the Hypercar category.
«We are pleased that so many competitors have followed us in terms of their technical choices. Many have modified their cars and tried to follow our philosophy. Now it’s up to us, perhaps, to redefine the paradigm for this new chapter in the Hypercar era.»
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