Ferrari F333 SP - 1998

Cette collection est une adaptation de 24H Le Mans ® Le auto delle corsa più leggendaria al mondo Éditeur : Centauria Editore s.r.l.

FERRARI F333 SP

Created for Ferrari customers, it became the queen of the IMSA WSC championship, but never managed to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The only exception was in 1998, when it won its category.

The Ferrari F333 SP, winner of the LMP1 category at the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours, was one of two cars that the American team Doyle-Risi Racing procured to race in America and Europe. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés.

Scuderia Ferrari produced the F333 SP, one of its best Sport-Prototypes ever, without the slightest intention of returning to endurance racing. The story was that the initial push came from Momo boss Gianpiero Moretti, who was keen to win the American IMSA championship with a Maranello car. The perfect opportunity presented itself in the 1994 season when, in a bid to revive a dying championship, the organisers abandoned the closed- body GTP cars and replaced them with a new category called WSC (World Sport Cars).

The new category followed in the footsteps of the 'Le Mans Prototype' (LMP) category created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), the organisers of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The new regulations stipulated 'simpler' cars, with two-seater open bodywork, as well as aerodynamic and technical limitations such as the requirement for a flat bottom.

1. The WSC/LMP1 regulations stipulate that the car should have a flat bottom with no aerodynamic devices.

2. This car is a short-tail type, while other versions have an extended rear end under the wing.

3. Maranello assembled the first F333 SPs on its premises. Subsequent models were built in the Dallara and Michelotto workshops.

Initially, most of the cars in the WSC category were modified 'old' GTPs. The F333 SP was the result of a new project involving Dallara for the chassis and Michelotto for the bodywork. The announcement of the return of Scuderia Ferrari twenty years after the 312 PB had left the limelight was enough to boost interest in the championship. This is also why, at the beginning, IMSA neglected the engine and took the initiative with a 3.5-litre V12, which was used in Formula 1 single-seaters.

Ferrari solved the problem by 'transiting' it from the new road-going supercar, the F50, adopting a 4.7-litre version from which the 4-litre F333 SP was derived. The fact that the F50 had not yet gone into production was irrelevant: for the organisers, the arrival of the Maranello cars was an excellent boost to the event. This 'tolerance' was short-lived: the F333 SPs of the Momo team and other private teams immediately proved superior to the 'local' cars and their enormous V8 rocker arms, winning the title in 1994 and triumphing in 1995 in both the constructors' and drivers' classifications - with Spaniard Fermín Vélez.

The IMSA therefore decided to introduce a number of restrictions to reduce the supremacy of the Ferrari engine. The regulations included a limit on maximum revs (the V12 exceeded 12,000 rpm) and a smaller flange on the intake, reducing power from 650 bhp at the start to less than 600, although this did not make the F333 SP any less competitive.

1. The car's body was made from a combination of carbon and Nomex, a heat-resistant material similar to Kevlar.

2. The flanks of this F333 SP were completely closed, lacking the NACA air intakes adopted on other versions of the model.

3. The dimensions of the rear wing were limited by the regulations. The version mounted to this car was fitted with shorter side panels.

At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ferrari's small cars were less effective. In 1995 and 1996, the teams competing did not finish the event.

The 1997 race saw Gianpiero Moretti finish sixth overall and third in the category alongside Didier Theys and Max Papis. In 1998, eight F333 SPs had been entered since the pre-qualifications in May, but on 6 June only four of them started and only two crossed the finish line. Doyle-Risi Racing's No. 12, driven by Fermín Vélez, South African Wayne Taylor and Dutchman Eric van de Pole, was the best of them, claiming an eighth place overall and class victory in LMP1.

A. The V12 engine with five valves per cylinder had a unit displacement of 333 cm3 , the value adopted to designate the model. It developed a maximum power of 650 bhp at 11,000 rpm. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés.

C. It was the F333 SP of Wayne Taylor, Eric van de Poele and Fermín Vélez that was the only car among the top 10 not to be part of the GT1 category that dominated the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hours. © IXO Collections SAS - Tous droits réservés.