Ferrari must 'close gap' on Toyota despite Austin win

After the victory in Austin with the n°83 of Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye, Ferrari could arrive with full confidence at the 6 Hours of Fuji, just two weeks after the Texan round. On the land of Toyota, the firm of Maranello Will it be able to challenge the local manufacturer for victory?

« It's hard to say, Nicklas Nielsen believes. Last year we had a lot of trouble there. Last year we had a lot of trouble there. I think we will have some more difficulties, but it will be better because of the upgrade we have. (from São Paulo. Ed.). I hope we will be pleasantly surprised. »

In Japan, Ferrari will once again have to face the formidable Toyotas, who will also be racing on home soil, on a track where the Japanese manufacturer has won the last six editions. In 2023, there was no contest, the two hybrid GR010s had scored a double by relegating the 499Ps (4th and 5th) to one lap.

The Prancing Horse did manage to beat Toyota in Texas, but the Italian manufacturer benefited from the penalty imposed on the No. 7 Toyota driven by Kamui Kobayashi for failure to respect yellow flags.

Without Penalty, Toyota Likely to Win Austin Race

Ferdinando Cannizzo, technical director of the program Endurance Ferrari himself acknowledged that the Italian manufacturer had success in Austin: " We were lucky because they committed this infraction during the double yellow and they went to the drive-through. Otherwise, they finish the race in the lead. »

Even starting far down the grid (9th and 12th), the Japanese manufacturer managed to navigate through the pack to move up into the top positions. Honestly, we didn't understand Toyota's performance in qualifying, Cannizzo confided. It seems like they were quite cautious. But from the start, the Toyota seemed very bright. They were easily overtaking the cars. That's what we predicted from our simulation. We knew that they are the fastest car on the track. We knew that they are going to come back and that they are able to manage their performance in the right way to be in front without taking any risks. »

« We still need to work hard to close the gap with the competition, added Cannizzo despite the victory. Our best competitors (Toyota. Ed.) still have a lot of room. We saw it at Interlagos and again today. We have to work harder to finally close the gap. »

A symbol of the ease of the Japanese prototypes, Kobayashi, who started off around ten seconds behind after paying for his drive through, almost made up the deficit on Shwartzman at the end of the race, coming back to within two seconds of the Ferrari “Giallo-Modena” in the final minutes before missing his braking at the first corner and thus letting the Israeli slip away towards victory.

For the #50 Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco, it will be important not to lose too many points on Toyota land in the Drivers' title race. The three men are currently tied on points with Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries (Toyota n°7) and are twelve behind Kévin Estre, André Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor.

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