Ferrari marked its victory on the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours with a parade in its dwelling city Maranello.
Its two 499P hypercars had been pushed from the staff’s manufacturing unit by the city the place crowds of individuals turned out to have a good time their win.
The race-winning quantity 51 machine, nonetheless carrying the dust and dirt from the day-long race two weeks in the past, led the procession from the manufacturing unit gates, with its drivers Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado onboard. Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen – who claimed pole place for the race and completed fifth – joined them.
Ferrari claimed its first outright victory within the race since 1965 with a margin of 81 seconds over the chasing Toyota GR010 of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa.
Charles Leclerc, who races for Ferrari’s Formulation 1 staff, attended the race and stated he received solely 4 hours’ sleep as he adopted Ferrari’s progress all through the evening.
“I feel it’s an unimaginable race and naturally I might like to take part someday,” he stated.
“The entire occasion is loopy. By evening, the primary six hours had been loopy with the climate – rain [then] no rain. So it was very, very thrilling. The final time I went to see a race as a spectator was a really, very very long time in the past.”
Whereas Leclerc is eager to participate within the race someday, he stated it will be troublesome to suit it in alongside his F1 commitments, even when this yr’s race didn’t straight conflict with a grand prix.
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“With increasingly races in F1 it begins to turn into increasingly troublesome, I feel, to suit one other race in one other class the place you might want to do testing, et cetera,” he stated. “If the calendar lets me do it, why not? However in the meanwhile, it seems to be troublesome.”
The bodily calls for of competing at Le Mans also needs to not be underestimated, stated Leclerc. “Clearly Le Mans is a really tiring race. After I noticed the drivers on the finish of the race, they had been actually, actually drained, not a lot sleep and a number of driving.
“So it’s good, I might like to do it someday, however you additionally want to consider the entire season and F1 is clearly the primary precedence for now.”
Nevertheless he admitted the occasion has an enormous enchantment.
“The joy across the race itself was unimaginable to see,” stated Leclerc. “I’ve by no means seen so many individuals on a race observe earlier than.
“It’s a really lengthy observe and wherever you go you see heaps and plenty of folks, and really obsessed with racing. You understand that it’s not the primary race they’re watching: they’ve been looking ahead to years. It’s good to see so many passionate folks on the identical occasion.”
The subsequent spherical on the World Endurance Championship calendar is Ferrari’s dwelling race at Monza on July ninth.
Footage: Ferrari celebrates its Le Mans win
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