Le Mans - Ferrari Owners' Club

23.6.06

Things have fallen to a pretty low ebb for the Prancing Horse in this great race in which they've had such success, winning nine times and second only to Porsche still in the league table of outright winners.

It's with a shock that you realise that their last outright victory was over 40 years ago in 1965 when Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory, certain that their N.A.R.T. 250LM (pic) would not last the distance, thrashed it unmercifully for most of the 24 hours but it survived to win, unlike the works' 330P2s

330Ps were second and third in 1967, third was the best the mighty 512M could do (1971 Posey /Adamowicz), Merzario and Pace brought the iconic 312PB home second in 1973 and that's the best result to date. The 333SP offered the last real chance of outright victory in recent years, but sixth was the best the tipo could manage in 1997 in the hands of Moretti/Theys/Papis.

With Fiat not well financially for so many years (though happily seemingly on the mend) and Ferrari totally focused on F1, it's hard to envisage another outright win in the foreseeable future. This prospect has receded even further with Audi's triumph this year with a diesel powered car. Even if Ferrari subcontracted the design and construction of another sportscar (á la 333 to Dallara) can you imagine a diesel-powered Ferrari even if a suitable engine could be built? For as much as it makes marketing sense for Audi, the opposite is true for Ferrari.

So it looks like class wins are the best we can hope for in the immediate future with the hope of the odd surprise as LM GT1 cars are well able to finish in the top ten, as the Corvettes proved this year with Gavin/Beretta/Magnusson coming home fourth, but even this is increasingly unlikely given the lack of an up-to-date Ferrari GT1 racer.

Three ageing 550Ms represented Ferrari in the LM GT1 class this year. All retired, the Russian Age car the first to go at 1:53 am "lost front body and pipes leak", the Covers Menx car "off the road" at 8:04 am and the Labre Compétition car succumbed to clutch failure at 10:35 am.

The only ray of sunshine in this year's Le Mans was provided by the sole representative of the marque in LM GT2 - Andrew Kirkaldy, Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen bringing their Scuderia Ecosse 430GT home 17th O/A and third in class. After 300 laps and 20 pit-stops, Kirkaldy crossed the line to finish this toughest of races at only the team's second attempt. The only drama came just a few minutes into the final leg of a triple stint for Andrew, when he pitted with a serious problem - a drive peg had sheared and the rear left wheel was stuck fast! This was quickly sorted by the team and Chris Niarchos resumed to continue the successful race to the podium.

Congratulations to all at Scuderia Ecosse on a great result and for defending Ferrari's honour so well!


Russian Age Racing 550M was the first to stop...	...Convers Menx 550M next	...Labre Compétition 550M lasted longest	With diesels likely to be dominant - will we ever see another Ferrari winner?