Fuji International Speedway, one of Japan’s most iconic circuits, is a 4.563-kilometre track with 16 turns. Opened in 1965, it has become a staple of endurance racing and, following the FIA WEC’s launch in 2012, has hosted a World Championship round every year except 2021. Over this period, Ferrari has achieved seven class victories with its GT cars, most recently in 2024 with the 296 LMGT3, and in 2023 with the 488 GTE. In the Hypercar top class, Ferrari’s best results to date at Fuji are the fourth and fifth places achieved in 2023 by the numbers 50 and 51 499Ps.

In recent years, the Prancing Horse has earned multiple wins at the track near the city of Gotemba in Shizuoka Prefecture. Of the seven victories, four were in the LMGTE Pro class (2014, 2015, 2017 and 2022), two in LMGTE Am (2017 and 2023), and one in LMGT3 (2024). Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni secured Ferrari’s first win at Fuji in 2014, at the wheel of the 458 Italia in the class reserved exclusively for professional drivers. The pairing repeated the feat the following year, once again taking the chequered flag in first place.

The latest triumph came in 2024, courtesy of Davide Rigon, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci, who celebrated victory in the Vista AF Corse car. This marked the first FIA WEC race win for the model, which had debuted in the championship in 2024.

Since the 499P’s competitive debut in 2023, Ferrari has scored a fourth-place finish at Mount Fuji with Fuoco, Molina and Nielsen, and a fifth with Pier Guidi, Calado and Giovinazzi, both in the same season. At the Japanese circuit in 2024, Ferrari’s Hypercar crews finished ninth with the number 50 and twelfth with the number 83 of AF Corse, while the number 51 Ferrari was forced to retire early.

Fuji International Speedway, which opened in the mid-1960s, has long been a landmark venue for endurance racing with Sports Prototypes. It has hosted the Fuji 1000 Miles, contested from 1967 through the early 1990s, and the Fuji 200 Miles, an invitation-only race traditionally held at the close of the international season. Ferrari claimed its first-ever victory on Japanese soil in this very race in 1970, when the Scuderia Picchio Rosso 512 S, crewed by Gianpiero Moretti and Corrado Manfredini, took the win.