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Ferrari will continue with an unchanged Hypercar class driver line-up in next year’s World Endurance Championship.

Antonello Coletta, Ferrari’s head of sportscar racing, confirmed on Sunday that the #50 499P Le Mans Hypercar will be raced in 2025 by Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina and #51 by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi for a third consecutive season.

The announcement made at the Ferrari World Finals for its one-make challenge series at Imola followed news announced on Saturday that Fuoco and Molina had renewed their factory contracts for next year.

Calado and Pier Guidi were granted contract extensions this time last year.

Coletta explained that there was no reason to make changes to the driver roster for the third campaign by the factory AF Corse team in the WEC.

“It is confirmed: #50 and #51 will not change – we will have the same drivers,” he said. “The #50 and #51 will be exactly the same.

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“We are happy with the line-ups: we have won with both at the Le Mans 24 Hours [with #51 in 2023 and #50 in ’24].”

Coletta stressed the importance of “consistency and continuity” in terms of the drivers on its Hypercar squad.

“When we started with the 499P and chose our GT pilots some people were not happy,” he continued.

“But even the sceptics have had to change their minds. All six 499P drivers have won Le Mans, which I think validates our choices.”

There has been no confirmation of the drivers for the #83 satellite entry run by AF Corse on a customer basis and driven this year by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman

Coletta outlined a hope to “announce it just before the Bahrain race” [this year’s WEC final on 2 November.

He ruled out Arthur Leclerc, brother of Ferrari F1 driver Charles, racing the car next year, even though he is scheduled to test one of the 499Ps in the WEC rookie test at Bahrain the day after the season finale.

Coletta explained that the younger of the Leclerc brothers, who is listed as a development driver for the F1 team, still needed to learn about sportscar racing.

He was placed by Ferrari for this year in the endurance segment of the Italian GT Championship, which he is contesting alongside his LMP2 commitments in the European Le Mans Series with Panis Racing.

“Our goal is for Arthur to keep learning about endurance and then there might be the chance for him to catch an opportunity in one of our prototypes in the future,” said Coletta.

Davide Rigon, Alessio Rovera, Daniel Serra and Lilou Wadoux, who are all part of the Ferrari factory roster of GT3 drivers, have also had their contracts extended into next year.

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Sebastien Ogier says he needs a “reset” after a third consecutive incident cost Toyota valuable points in its bid to defend the World Rally Championship manufacturers’ title.

The eight-time world champion was in the box seat to deliver a fourth victory from his partial campaign at the Central European Rally, having ended Saturday with 18 provisional points after building a 5.2s lead over Hyundai’s Ott Tanak.

However, his rally began to unravel when he overshot a left-hander in Sunday’s first stage, dropping the Frenchman 1.9s behind the 2019 world champion.

That gap was shortened to 1.5s heading into the penultimate run, where Ogier’s rally came to an abrupt halt six hundred metres into a stage where route note crews were unable to traverse beforehand to pass on crucial road information to drivers.

Ogier ran wide into a fast right-hander, clattering the trees and causing terminal damage to his GR Yaris, and was unusually visibly angry in the aftermath of the incident that threw away the 18 points earned on Saturday.

The accident is the third incident in a row for Ogier after crashing on the final stage in Greece, while in Chile he clipped a rock that sent him into retirement on the Saturday.

“It was another example that the gravel crew are doing a crucial job for us. It was the only stage of the weekend where they were not allowed to go through and basically we didn’t have the information of the road evolution,” said Ogier at the scene of the crash.

Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“This first long corner under the trees people have been cutting more [than we were] anticipating. The corner was becoming very greasy and at the end I couldn’t turn basically and I understeered and went wide at the exit and hit the trees on the outside.

“I feel angry with myself in the moment and I’m very sorry for the team. I tried my best. It was really my main target to help them achieve the manufacturers’ title.

“I think I was doing a good job so far but unfortunately it is a third weekend in a row that has not gone my way. It is a tough time.”

Reflecting on the incident hours later, Ogier added: “I need a reset for sure. Right now I feel very disappointed for the team as it could have been another strong weekend for us.

“In France, we say ‘never two without three’ and now it is three rallies in a row that we have really tough luck. I’m very happy with the speed obviously but unfortunately, again this was even worse than the last weekends as we didn’t score any points this time. Let’s hope we still have some in Japan.”

Despite the crash, Toyota reduced the deficit to Hyundai to 15 points in the manufacturers’ race thanks to points scored by Elfyn Evans, who finished the rally third overall, while Takamoto Katsuta picked up the maximum 12 Super Sunday points.

Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala admitted that it had been strange to see the mistakes from Ogier, but also believes safety note crews must be allowed to pass through each stage in the future.

“It was looking very good after Saturday and I thought we would be able to catch back on points and take it closer for Japan, but it has unfortunately changed quite rapidly,” Latvala told Motorsport.com.

“It’s strange [to see these errors from Seb] and he has apologised.

“This time, what he told me [is] they didn’t allow the safety crews to go through because of the timetable so there was more mud on this corner and he anticipated higher grip and he lost control of the car.

“With these cars, we should always have the safety crews going on stage. It is a different story with the slower cars but when the speeds are higher the risk levels are higher.

“I think it has hurt him quite hard because he had done a great fight and tried to help the team but when the accidents happen in a row… it starts to affect your confidence and everything it is not easy to handle that kind of thing.”

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If the final six races of 2024 are a shootout for next year’s Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen, then series returnee Liam Lawson certainly made an impression.

Fresh from a spell on the sidelines as Red Bull’s reserve driver, Lawson kicked off his stint replacing Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull’s RB team with a third-fastest time in Q1 at Austin. He was three tenths off leader Verstappen, and faster than what team-mate Yuki Tsunoda could muster in qualifying.

Lawson came into Saturday qualifying knowing he would start on the back of the grid on Sunday due to an engine penalty inherited from Ricciardo. He was also shaking off a disappointingly messy lap in sprint qualifying, which prevented him from challenging for points earlier on Saturday.

So, Q1 was his only chance to make an impression, which he certainly did by clocking a third-fastest-time which Red Bull mentor Helmut Marko called “sensational”.

“You showed what you had to show,” his race engineer told him after his Q1 lap.

“That’s all I wanted to do,” came the excited reply, tinged with a hint of frustration that his impending grid penalty robbed the New Zealander of what could have been a Q3 spot had he been able to repeat his exploits in the following session.

Liam Lawson, Visa Cash App RB F1 Team, on the Sprint grid

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“That was the goal; to make the most of Q1 to put everything together,” Lawson said afterwards. “And that’s what we what we did. It’s obviously positive, coming from yesterday into today.

“[The grid penalty] is just more frustrating because the performance of the car, the pace, was really strong in Q1. Obviously we’d only really improved from there, is the idea, so there were plenty of positives going forward.

“[Friday] I knew we had performance in the car, and I knew we didn’t maximise it. I made a mistake in Q2 and went wide and had a bit of a slow lap. 

“We made a further step with it, make some changes, and it’s just nice when you put it all together. It feels like I completed what I’d set out to do getting into the car this weekend. Now we need to try and master the race side of it.”

But despite thinking about what could have been a great starting position, Lawson says he still enjoyed being back where he belongs after watching from the sidelines for the past 12 months.

“It was a good feeling, it was nice to be back in a race,” he nodded. “Being a reserve driver, I probably didn’t realise how much I would miss actually racing and being in competition.

“I’ve competed every year since I was seven years old, so it was a bit strange and I missed it. It was good to be back.”

Additional reporting by Mark Mann-Bryans