Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI
Ferrari AF Corse drivers Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen all agreed that the progress made over the winter helped deliver Friday’s “historic” podium sweep for the Italian manufacturer.
Fuoco led home a 1-2-3 finish for Ferrari 499P machinery in the FIA World Endurance Championship season-opening Qatar 1812km, giving the No. 50 crew its first victory since last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans triumph.
The Italian driver managed to jump ahead of the third-string No. 83 Ferrari of Robert Kubica on the final round of pit stops after triple-stinting his left-side Michelin tires to the finish of the ten-hour contest at Lusail International Circuit.
“Going for a triple stint on the left side was quite tough but I think we managed it really well,” said Fuoco. “It was the only thing to gain a position against the sister car, the 83, and it was working quite well.
“They were coming quite fast from behind. It wasn’t an easy job today.
“It was quite intense trying to manage the tires. But it was working quite well and I think to secure P1, P2 and P3 for the team was something of a historic result, I would say.
“For the rest of the season, we’ll try to keep the momentum and we’ll go to the next one.”
Fuoco credited the Prancing Horse’s work done in the off-season, which was largely focused on improving the reliability of its car after several failures over the course of the 2024 season.
“I would like to thank the team for all the work in the winter,” he said. “I think we did a really nice job. We came here with really good preparation.
“I think we showed the work that we did in the winter was working quite well.”
Molina added: “We arrived here very well prepared. The winter was intense and was tough for all the people in Maranello and for us as drivers as well, [with] testing and simulator.
“At the end we have a goal, our aim. Starting this way, this first race in Qatar is the best way to start, to be in the championship [lead] already from the beginning.”
After qualifying third, the No. 50 Ferrari of Nielsen moved into second in the early stages of the race and later capitalized on a series of penalties for pole-sitting No. 51 car to take control of the race.
“It was quite crucial for the way we managed the race after that,” said Nielsen. “I knew the race start was going to be important for tire management.
“It’s almost impossible to get around other cars here unless you have an advantage in speed.
“We managed it well and obviously as the race went on there were a lot of things happening like the VSC and so on.
“I think we executed well today and we deserved the win.”
While the winning Ferrari lost ground prior to halfway after getting tagged into a spin by the No. 15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, the No. 51 car bounced back from three penalties in the first half of the race.
The first, a drive-through for improper virtual safety car procedures, was followed by a second, five-second penalty for an incident with BMW’s Sheldon van der Linde, which was capped off by a pit lane speeding infraction.
Alessandro Pier Guidi pressured the yellow-liveried No. 83 Ferrari of Kubica in the closing stages but settled for a third place result.
“We maximized the points we could earn as a team for the world manufacturers’ championship,” said Pier Guidi. It wasn’t the cleanest race for us, and halfway through, it was hard to imagine finishing on the podium.”
AF Corse team manager Batti Pregliasco revealed post-race that Ferrari froze the positions of its three cars with ten minutes to go.
“In the end we were transparent, as a manufacturer,” he explained.
“I think there was intelligent management to leave it open until ten minutes to the end and then we decided to [freeze] the situation, to avoid to make stupid things that is not really wanted by any one of us.
“It was very open. The 51 was leading and then made some mistakes, some infringements. Then the 83 [was leading]. A ten-hour race is so long. There were many, many different possibilities.”
