If you're a big motorsport fan and a particular aficionado of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), then you might want mark 2023 down as a year to look forward to, very much indeed. Because, on top of a host of other big-name motorsports manufacturers getting involved in that year's campaign, now Ferrari has confirmed it is going to be competing in the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) programme in two years' time.
A 50-year wait
With recent-history Le Mans heavyweights Audi and Porsche already weighing in for 2023 LMH participation, alongside other hallowed names from the race's history like Peugeot, the field was looking good already. Of course, reigning Le Mans triple-champ Toyota is also going to be there, as is Glickenhaus, but Ferrari is a big coup for the WEC series.
The Italian outfit's last official participation in the premier class of the series (which was then called the World Sports Car Championship) was in 1973, so it will be half-a-century since the Prancing Horse had a chance of overall victory. Ferrari has conducted a period of study and analysis on re-entering the WEC and taking the grid at Le Mans, with development of the new LMH car already underway.
Track-testing, the name of the car and the drivers who will get to crew the contender will all be announced in due course, and Ferrari will be hoping to build on its record in closed-wheel competition that has seen it pick up 24 world titles in various classes (most recently in 2017) and 36 victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (again, in various classes; it last tasted outright victory at La Sarthe in 1965, its final of nine victories before it was infamously done over by Ford and the GT40 in 1966).
Ferrari's president, John Elkann, said: "In over 70 years of racing, on tracks all over the world, we led our closed-wheel cars to victory by exploring cutting-edge technological solutions: innovations that arise from the track and make every road car produced in Maranello extraordinary. With the new Le Mans Hypercar programme, Ferrari once again asserts its sporting commitment and determination to be a protagonist in the major global motorsport events."