The winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours with Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi has conceded that the Italian manufacturer’s 499P Le Mans Hypercar is lacking pace in all areas after neither of the two AF Corse-run cars were on the pace in the opening two sessions of free practice.
“Really bad, no pace at all,” said Calado ahead of the final session of free practice on Friday ahead of the Bahrain 8 Hours.
“We’re scratching our heads a little bit: the car actually feels quite nice to drive, it seems normal, but it’s just that we are two or three seconds off.”
“We can only really compare to the last race [at Fuji in September], and we are off in every area pretty much.”
Ferrari sportscar technical director Ferdinando Cannizzo was more diplomatic than Calado but admitted that the Italian manufacturer is facing “a very big challenge” to turn its Bahrain weekend around.
The best of the Ferraris was more than three seconds off the pace of the Toyotas at the top of the timesheets in Free Practice 2, the more representative of the two sessions on Thursday.
The two cars filled out 10th and 11th positions in the Hypercar field ahead of only the Vanwall Vandervell 680.
Source: Autosport