Ferrari admits reliability improvements needed after “complicated” 24 Hours of Le Mans

Ferrari sportscar boss Antonello Colleta says the marque must improve reliability on its 499P Hypercar after a “complicated” 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Italian squad looked on course for a lockout of the podium at the midway stage of last weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

But late technical dramas, as well as yellow flag penalties, for the No.50 and No.51 factory cars helped the No.6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 split the winning No.83 AF Corse Ferrari from its works counterparts.

Ferrari was dealt a further blow when the fourth-placed No.50 car was disqualified from the result after its rear wing supports failed a stress test and was found to have missing bolts.

The marque says it will not appeal the result but stressed that the missing bolts did not lead to a performance advantage nor a safety issue.

Speaking directly after the race prior to the No.50’s disqualification, Colleta said: “2025 has been a really complicated 24 hours.

“From 10, 11 of the morning we had some little problems in the mechanical parts of the engine and some electronic parts - in all three of our cars, more or less.

“And because of this, it was very complicated for us to manage all the situation because we were first, second and third, and we were not relaxed but we thought to have a chance to keep all the podium at the end of the race.

“Unfortunately, we had some mechanical problems. We won but we didn’t cover all the podium.”

The No.83 AF Corse car that won also battled a downshifting issue all race.

Coletta admits Ferrari have had various issues already this season in the World Endurance Championship and says reliability for its cars needs to be improved.

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“Honestly, we had some different problems before,” he added.

“And we would like to come back to our factory and dismantle the cars, because we would like to see each part of the car with calm because during the race I spoke a lot with my technical director and I believe that the level of the championship grows and grows.

“The races are really competitive, really complicated. The rhythm of the race is very hard and for this matter, probably our car - but not only our cars, because I saw a lot of cars with problems - needs to improve the reliability because the rhythm is really, really strong.

“And for this matter, probably all the cars need to improve their quality. Our car is a project from three years ago and is the same, because we spent just one [development] joker - but just for the aerodynamics, not for a mechanical changes.”

He believes the technical dramas for Ferrari were exposed by the fact that the 2025 edition of Le Mans only saw one brief safety car intervention compared to previous years’ interruptions.

“In terms of safety car, we had just one, and it has been a completely different Le Mans,” Coletta explained.

“Last year, we were in safety car for four and a half hours. All the night we were in safety car.

“This year completely different, just some full course yellow. Probably this is another good point because the rhythm of the race has been very consistent.

“With the safety car you have a chance to take time [to rest] the engine parts.

“With a full course yellow for one minute, one and a half minutes, we haven’t a chance to be in a different situation in respect to the rhythm of the race.

“In Spa we had a problem with the yellow car. Probably we need to improve our reliability that has been one of the most important issues since the first year in 2023.

“I remember I was afraid to have a problem of the car, but at the end we didn’t have a reliability problem for the whole season.”