The Italian manufacturer revealed in the aftermath of round two of the 2024 WEC that it had misinterpreted the weather forecast it received and that there was also a breakdown in the chain of command within the team at the crucial point of the six hours when rain arrived.
The reason why Ferrari pitted for wet tyres four laps after the majority of the rest of the Hypercar field two thirds of the way through the race was that it believed the rain was “just temporary”, said race and testing manager Giuliano Salvi.
Salvi explained that Ferrari had been expecting the rain earlier and that it had started to distrust the forecast.
“Sometimes you look at the radar and you think it should rain and it doesn’t, and you stop relying on the signal,” he said.
“We thought it was the kind of situation where you don’t need to rely on the radar too much.
“We misjudged the situation, this is clear.
“We are not trying to hide anything because it was a clear mistake.”
Salvi also revealed that it had been planning to split the strategies on the two factory Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars, with one going onto wets earlier and one staying on dry-weather slick tyres.
“We need to understand this way to split didn’t go through,” he said.
Source: Autosport