It made the claim despite its two 499P Le Mans Hypercars trailing home in fourth and fifth positions, a lap down on the Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs that blocked out the top two positions.
“There is a status quo; this position is more of less the same from after the Le Mans 24 Hours,” said Giuliano Salvi, Ferrari’s race and test team manager.
“Our position compared with Toyota is more or less as expected.”
Salvi stressed that the close second place for the #50 Ferrari shared by Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina at Monza in July offered an unrealistic picture of the relative performance of the 499P compared with the Toyota after the post Le Mans Balance of Performance change.
Asked if the gap had grown since Monza, Salvi replied: “No, in the end that wasn’t the case.”
He suggested that finishing a lap down “was our expectation” in a clean race without significant yellow-flag periods.
There were three full safety cars during the Monza 6 Hours, but only one quick-fire safety car and one Full Course Yellow in Japan last weekend.
That explained why the #50 car finished only 16s behind the winning Toyota on Ferrari’s home ground at Monza.
Source: Autosport