Ferrari's worrying pre-round prediction is coming true at 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans

Ferrari driver Antonio Giovinazzi admits he “already knew coming here” that Cadillac would be “the car to beat” at the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Cadillac topped every session on its way to an historic 1-2 in Hyperpole on Thursday with the Jota squad, as the team’s No.12 entry driven by Alex Lynn claimed a first pole for the US marque at the iconic endurance race.

This year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, which begins at 4pm CET on Saturday 12 June, is expected to be wide open, with six of the eight manufacturers competing for outright honours in Hypercar in with a realistic chance of winning.

All week, rival manufacturers were touting Ferrari - who has won Le Mans for the last two years - to be holding pace in reserve on the run up to Hyperpole.

But the Prancing Horse was stunned with two of its cars exiting Hyperpole, while the No.50 car that won last year was only able to qualify seventh.

Giovinazzi, who drives the No.51 entry alongside James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, concedes Ferrari doesn’t have the best pace going into the race.

“The hope can always be there, especially for Le Mans,” the 2023 Le Mans winner told the media, including Crash.net, after qualifying the No.51 11th.

“It’s a long race and everything can happen. Qualy, they say, is the race that doesn’t mean so much here at Le Mans.

“But, to be honest, [in qualifying] the competitors were faster than us. So, this is for sure.

“We didn’t expect that we would be that far. But I think we keep pushing, I think the race pace is not the best out there, but I hope it’s good enough to fight.”

He added: “I think in qualy they [Cadillac] pushed and they were P1 and P2.

“Last year we [Ferarri] did P3 and P4, and two years ago we were P1 and P2. So, I think we tried to push.

“Two cars were not in Hyperpole 2, we start seventh, 11th and 13th. These are not good positions, but let’s see the temperature first of all, because maybe it will be cooler.

“So, in terms of degradation we can expect a lot of strategies. Then in the night we don’t know whether we can put the soft on because there’s not enough mediums.

“So, it’s a long race, but for sure we were pushing and in the qualifying sim - not only Cadillac - all the cars were faster in front of us.”

Ferrari was always wary of Cadillac’s Le Mans threat

When asked by Crash.net if Cadillac’s qualifying pace was a real indicator of what speed it will have across the 24-hour race, Giovinazzi said: “For me, Cadillac, we knew already coming here that they were the car to beat, to be honest.

“It’s also Toyota there, who for sure will be there. And BMWs in front, Porsche got disqualified with one car but I’m sure they will be there.

“So, it will be a big fight and a close fight. So, I hope for you guys it will be nice to watch.

“[I expect Cadillac to be favourite in] both of them [qualifying and race].

“We saw already at the beginning of the year, if you have a good car in qualy like we showed in Imola, in Spa, you have a good car also for the race pace.

“So, I don’t see that they are on pole and then they will struggle in the race. I don’t see this.”

Giovinazzi says the Ferrari 499P is lacking in the high-speed sections compared to the Cadillac, while he feels the car’s straightline speed is down relative to others too.

“To be honest, Cadillac is quite strong in the last sector, in the high-speed section,” he explained.

“Then we have other cars faster than us on the straight line.

“We are just here, trying to survive to be honest. But I mean, in the race with the tow and these things it can change a lot, the traffic as well.

“The strategy is more important than the pace, in some points, in general.

“So, I hope it is like this but we will have to wait. I think [in the race] after a few hours going into the night we will know who the contender will be.”