It has been, by any measure, a challenging title defence for Ferrari in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2026 – one that ended with Toyota clinching the Manufacturers’ crown earlier this month in Barcelona – but the famous Italian marque still has hopes of signing off the season in style in front of its adoring fans at Monza.
Having dominated proceedings in 2025 – winning the opening four races back-to-back – the Ferrari 499P Hypercar has surprisingly only notched up one victory so far this year, with the #50 crew of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen benefitting from the #7 Toyota’s late heartbreak at COTA to prevail for the first time since last season’s curtain-raising contest in Qatar. The trio again flew the flag for Ferrari in Spain. Home hero Molina rose from eighth on the grid to fourth early on in the six-hour bout, going on to run as high as second before falling prey to a hard-charging Nyck de Vries. Team-mates Nielsen and Fuoco subsequently maintained that strong form as the #50 entry proved to be ‘best-of-the-rest’ behind the dominant Toyota duo, ultimately taking the chequered flag third.
We were pleased to be back on the podium with the #50 499P, achieving a very positive result that made up for the difficult trip to Japan,
“It was a great weekend, made all the more special by the excitement of racing at home and achieving this positive result,” enthused Molina. “Getting on the podium in Barcelona was a dream of mine, and I’m delighted to have made it come true.”
“We managed to make the most of everything at our disposal, which is certainly a positive,” echoed Fuoco. “Now, we need to focus on the final race at Monza, with the aim of doing even better. Racing in Italy for the second time this season will be special for us. We expect a fantastic atmosphere in the grandstands, with our tifosi cheering us on, and we’ll do our best to put on a great show!”
The #50 has overtaken the sister #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P in the Drivers’ standings after 2025 world champions Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi endured what the latter described as a ‘really tough race’ around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Calado fought his way up to fourth from a lowly 14th on the grid, before a combination of high tyre wear and a penalty for a safety car infringement dropped the car to an eventual 15th-place finish, three laps down.
Despite that disappointment, by dint of outscoring BMW in the penultimate round of the campaign, the Prancing Horse continued its late-season bid to overhaul its Bavarian rival for the runner-up spoils in the Manufacturers’ classification, now sitting 24 points behind with a maximum of 44 still available at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on 6-8 November.
“I believe the team maximised the result in the conditions we faced,” commented Ferrari’s Head of Endurance Race Cars, Ferdinando Cannizzo, alluding to the changeable conditions in Catalunya. “With car #50, we managed to secure an important podium finish, but the race for #51 was severely affected by a tyre-related issue that arose after a strong comeback had allowed us to climb to fourth. That problem compromised the end result.”
“We were pleased to be back on the podium with the #50 499P, achieving a very positive result that made up for the difficult trip to Japan,” echoed Antonello Coletta, Global Head of Endurance and Corse Clienti. “Unfortunately, the #51 encountered some issues and was forced off-strategy, leaving it well outside of the points. Now, we’re focusing on Monza, with the aim of putting together the best possible race and achieving a great result in front of the Italian tifosi.”
