Winners and losers from another Ferrari WEC romp

After an Imola World Endurance Championship race that was more eventful than expected due to mistakes and interruptions, Ferrari secured its second victory in as many races at the start of 2025, this time thanks to the #51 499P driven by James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

But the Italian manufacturer was not the only big winner, with a couple of welcome podium finishes - as well as a pair of manufacturers who were particularly disappointed on Sunday evening.

Winner: Ferrari

Ferrari's second consecutive WEC victory was its first at home in the WEC or its predecessor series since the 1973 Monza 1000 km, won by Brian Redman and Jacky Ickx in the 312 PB.

It's simple: the 499P came away with the best laptimes in FP1, FP3, qualifying and hyperpole, as well as victory, the fastest lap, the best average speeds, the best top speed and the three best sector times.

"It was a long race, but we were well aware of the car's potential and made no mistakes, neither in terms of strategy nor tyre management," explained Antonio Giovinazzi. The Scuderia's Formula 1 reserve driver and his team-mates claimed their second WEC victory in Hypercar, the first after the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours.

"After our Qatar 1-2-3, today reaffirmed how effective our winter development work has been," added head of endurance and Corse Clienti Antonello Coletta.

But Ferrari can only be half-satisfied with its home weekend, as a 1-2-3 was expected. "We'd obviously hoped for stronger results with the other two cars, but for different reasons, we couldn't achieve what we'd targeted," Coletta regreted.

Still, hats off to the #51 car, which had a flawless weekend. This victory makes up for the disappointment of 2024, when Ferrari was on course for a 1-2-3 before completely miscalculating its strategy in the rain.

After two races, the three Ferrari line-ups are in the top three places in the drivers' standings and Ferrari leads the manufacturers' standings. Who said anything about domination?

Monza 6 Hours result

1 Calado / Giovinazzi / Pier Guidi (Ferrari)
2 Frijns / Rast / S. van der Linde (BMW) +8.490s
3 Schumacher / Makowiecki / Gounon (Alpine) +12.450s
4 Kubica / Hanson / Ye (Ferrari) +20.597s
5 Buemi / Hartley / Hirakawa (Toyota) +23.210s
6 D Vanthoor / Marciello / Magnussen (BMW) +25.516s
7 Conway / Kobayashi / De Vries (Toyota), +31.478s
8 Estre / L Vanthoor / Campbell (Porsche) +41.280s
9 Di Resta / Jensen / Vergne (Peugeot) +50.904s
10 Lynn / Nato / Stevens (Cadillac) +53.300s

Loser: Toyota

Toyota tried everything, even a daring strategy at the last restart, deciding to bring forward its penultimate pit stop to benefit from clean air. This choice was also adopted by the #50 Ferrari, leading to a duel between Antonio Fuoco and Sébastien Buemi.

"It's impossible or very difficult to overtake on this track," explained technical director David Floury. "You have to find ways to make your way up. With the weight and power we have, for raceability, it's even more difficult."

The #8 Toyota's crossing of the gravels following contact with the #50 Ferrari cost Buemi between three and four seconds. Finally, he finished fifth, 2.6s off fourth place. But according to Floury, it was difficult to hope for much better.

"We were a bit unfortunate with the full course yellow because we had to make an emergency stop with car #7, which cost us a lot of track positions, which is a bit of a pain," he explained. "And then we had this FCY infringement with Brendon [Hartley] as well, which cost us a lot. So it wasn't a 100% clean race. But at the end of the day, in any case, we could have achieved a bit more, but not much more."

After two races, Toyota is 39 points behind Ferrari, which is already assured of heading into the Le Mans 24 Hours at the top of the manufacturers' standings. "Ferrari was in a class of its own," Floury concluded. "It's been the same in Qatar.

"There is a very high risk that this will continue for much of the year and that the title will be decided by mid-season. So for sure there's a lot of frustration. Last year we were fighting for the championship with Porsche, and this year we are both fighting between P6 and P14, and the cars are the same, the tyres are the same, the teams are the same, the drivers are the same..."

Make of that what you will...

Winner: BMW

On the operational side, Team WRT was as brilliant at Imola as its BMW operating counterpart RLL was disappointing at Long Beach a week earlier. As in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, the M Hybrid V8 is performing better and better, thanks in part to a change of brake suppliers during the winter. It's now up to the racing team to perform at the same level.

This was the case in Italy, which allowed the #20 car to finish second despite a rear end change following a collision.

"If you had told me yesterday that we would finish second, I wouldn't have believed you," head of BMW M Motorsport Andreas Roos admitted. "I'm very happy tonight with this second place." And with good reason, as everyone knew that the 499P was untouchable.

By opting for two short final stints after the last restart rather than one long and one very short, the #20 car driven by Sheldon van der Linde, Robin Frijns and Rene Rast managed to secure a place on the podium.

As the #15 finished fourth, BMW was the most successful manufacturer in Italy with 28 points. It is now second behind Ferrari in the overall standings.

Loser: Porsche

Admittedly, when comparing last year's Balance of Performance at Imola with the one of this year, we did not expect Porsche to be in contention for the podium. Yet that was the case during the second part of the race, mainly due to an early tyre change, which was 'free' as it was made before the first safety car.

That allowed the #6 car to gain several track positions - but the 963s then fell down the standings.

"We're not happy with eighth and 11th," analysed Thomas Laudenbach. "The team fought hard and did a great job. We now need to step back and take a closer look at everything. The performance differences between the various Hypercars give us pause for thought!"

The Porsche Motorsport vice-president is obviously referring to the BoP, which competitors are prohibited from discussing, as stipulated in Article 6.2.1 of the WEC sporting regulations.

"A disappointing day. We didn't have enough pace to challenge the leaders," outlined Jonathan Diuguid Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director. "The #6 crew followed a good strategy and even led the race for a while, but they couldn't hold on to the front spot to the flag."

But even so, despite an unfavourable BoP, albeit much better than in Qatar, we did not expect to see Porsche in such difficulty, given that it has won three out of three races in IMSA.

Winner: Alpine

After a tough start, with a collision between the two cars that could have been avoided on the first lap, Alpine managed to get back to secure a second podium finish in the WEC thanks to the #36 car of Mick Schumacher, Frédéric Makowiecki and Jules Gounon.