WEC News: Ferrari uses fuel strategy to finish 1-2 at Spa
Ferrari maintained its unbeaten start to the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign in the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps today (10 May), fending off a race-long threat from Alpine to secure a one-two finish with its #51 and #50 499P Hypercars and extend its advantage in the chase for the crown.
From third on the grid, Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, who won last time out in Imola, extended their championship lead with a near flawless drive in front of almost 100,000 spectators trackside.
In the final two hours of the race, after a third and final safety car restart, the #51’s engineers on the pit wall managed to execute a perfect strategy. The car pitted from the lead and emerged in the same position with 10 minutes remaining, after a number of other contending cars required longer final splashes of fuel.
The winning margin in the end was just 4.2 seconds, as Pier Guidi led home the pole-sitting #50 of Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina, which finished the race with next-to-no virtual energy left in the tank.
It was touch and go as to whether the #50 would need to make a seventh stop like every other car in the top 10. But Nielsen put in a calculated drive and was helped by two late brief FCY periods, which allowed him to save energy.
This came after a flashpoint in the middle of the race that compromised the #50’s strategy, when the team opted to switch the positions of its two cars on the pit lane using the blend line.
It allowed the #51 Ferrari to go ahead of the #50 Ferrari, enabling both cars to pit in their correct bays in the ideal sequence. After race control noted the move, Ferrari then chose to switch positions again on-track and task the #50 Ferrari with pulling out a six-second lead to offset any potential penalty.
The Ferrari 499Ps may have had the ultimate pace all week, but this race was far from a walkover and kept everyone up and down the pit lane guessing right to the end, with all eight Hypercar manufacturers finishing on the lead lap.
“I still can’t believe it,” Pier Guidi said after the race. “At the start of the weekend, it was difficult, and at the end, I was pushing on every lap. I gave everything, I am finished, I tried to be as quick as I could before the splash (to build enough of a gap to hold onto the lead after a seventh visit to the pits). The guys worked so hard repairing the car earlier in the weekend (after the car’s off at Raidillon in second practice).”
Calado added: “I didn’t expect that. It was a mental race, so up and down with so many incidents. The car was clearly super strong, the team were also spot on with strategy, they have improved so much and it’s made such a big difference.”