Nicklas Nielsen hopes Ferrari can take revenge on Toyota at this weekend’s World Endurance Championship race at Imola, but conceded it won’t be an easy task.
At last month’s season opener at Imola, Ferrari started from pole position and held a 1-2 in the early stages. But Toyota managed to outgun Ferrari on the Italian marque’s home soil, with Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley taking the top spot in the heavily revised TR010 Hybrid.
Ferrari Hypercar driver Nielsen hopes his team can level the score with Toyota in what is considered something of a ‘second home race’ for the Japanese manufacturer, given the proximity to Cologne, where the team’s factory is based.
“I hope so,” Nielsen told Motorsport when asked if this felt like a chance for revenge. “Obviously, we would have liked it to finish a bit different in Imola, but we saw how important the track position was there, and probably we underestimated that a bit.
“Also, being at the very beginning of the pitlane, obviously it was a bit easy for them also to see when we arrived and they could unplug a bit earlier. So yeah, I mean, it was a bit of a mix there, but hopefully we will get revenge here.”
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Nicklas Nielsen
Photo by: Ferrari
Alessandro Pier Guidi, who drives the #51 Ferrari 499P, did not necessarily want to speak of revenge against Toyota.
“I wouldn’t say revenge, it’s just a race,” he said. “They won in Imola, they did a very good job and had a very quick car. At the end, the championship is still long.”
“We try to do as best as we can with what we have and score as many points as we can. It’s just the second race of the season, so it’s still a long journey.”
Ferrari won the Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours last year, but it expects more competition than just Toyota this year.
“We saw BMW and Alpine being very strong here last year, and nothing has really changed from Imola. On paper, they should be quite strong again,” Nielsen predicted.
“We saw Alpine was probably our biggest competitor here last year… you never really know, but of course we are here to win.
“For sure, it’s not going to be easy, and we are never underestimating the performance of the others, because we’ve seen that it’s getting closer and closer basically every race, so I think it’s going to be quite interesting here.”
Asked by Motorsport whether he expected Spa’s characteristics to suit the 499P better than Imola, Nielsen replied: “The first time we came to Imola, we didn’t really expect our car to be as strong as it was there, because this is more like a track for our car, here in Spa.
“But it really depends also on the grip level of the circuit. Imola is a track with quite a lot of grip compared to most others. And we have a good, flowing car – it’s nice to drive and there’s a good flow when we drive it – so that’s why we saw ourselves being very strong in Imola as well.
“Here we’ve already seen from the first year that the car was very strong, in 2024 and also last year, finishing first and second. So, we are optimistic, but we still have to wait and see.”
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