Weekend preview: Ferrari on track in Europe, Japan and Australia

The busy race weekend will see two Ferrari 296 GT3s on track for the opening round of the Super GT in Japan and two more at Phillip Island for the GT World Challenge Australia. The European Le Mans Series season kicks off with three official drivers and six Prancing Horse cars in the LMGT3 class, while the Michelin Le Mans Cup starts with five Ferrari 296 GT3s. At the “Green Hell”, all eyes are on the 24 Hours of Nürburgring qualifying race, which the Ferrari of Frikadelli Racing Team won last year." 

Super GT. The Japanese Super GT championship gets underway at the Okayama circuit. The GT300 class includes two Ferrari 296 GT3s that already showed their worth in the March tests at the Fuji International Speedway. Kei Cozzolino and Maranello official driver, Lilou Wadoux, will be in number 45 of Ponos Racing. The Uni-Robo Bluegrass team’s number 6 will feature Yoshiaki Katayama and Roberto Merhi Muntan. Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday, 13 April, from 2 p.m.; on Sunday, 14 the race will start at 1.30 p.m.

ELMS. Just days after the collective tests in Barcelona, the first round of the championship will unfold on the same circuit with a four-hour endurance race. Six Ferraris will compete in the new LMGT3 class, which replaces the GTE. 

Johnny and Conrad Laursen will share the wheel of Formula Racing’s 296 LMGT3 number 50 with Ferrari official driver Nicklas Nielsen. The latter, who began his successful racing career in the Ferrari Challenge and was crowned the 2018 Trofeo Pirelli champion, now also races in the FIA WEC with the Prancing Horse’s 499P. The Dane won the ELMS in the LMGTE class in 2019. 

Another official driver, Daniel Serra, who posted the best time of 1’41”316 on the first day of testing, will drive Kessel Racing’s Ferrari number 57 alongside Japan’s Takeshi Kimura and Esteban Masson. 

The third official driver at the start, Davide Rigon, who turned in the best time of 1’41”078 on day two of testing, will pilot GR Racing’s number 86 car with Michael Wainwright and Riccardo Pera. 

The championship will also see the proven trio of Duncan Cameron, Matthew Griffin, and David Perel competing in Spirit of Racing’s Ferrari number 55, while the AF Corse team will feature Charles-Henri Samani, Emmanuel Collard, and Ulysse De Pauw in the LMGT3 number 51. Finally, three British drivers—John Hartshorne, Ben Tuck, and Philip Keen—will take turns driving JMW Motorsport’s Ferrari number 66.

Following Friday’s free practice, the LMGT3 qualifying session is on Saturday, 13 April, at 2.40 p.m., while the four-hour race starts on Sunday, 14, at 11.30 a.m.

Le Mans Cup. Five Ferrari 296 GT3s will compete in the season’s opening round at the Barcelona circuit over a distance of 110 minutes. The fastest driver in this week’s collective tests at the same track was Spaniard Fran Rueda Mateos, who clocked 1’40”689. He will team up with Andrew Gilbert in Kessel Racing’s Ferrari number 74. 

The number 12 car from the same Swiss team recorded the second-best time of 1’40”841 over the two sessions, with David Fumanelli set to share driving duties with Frederic Jousset. Alessandro Balzan and Matthew Kurzejewski will race under the AF Corse banner in the Ferrari 296 GT3 number 51. Meanwhile, the Piacenza-based team’s number 88, driven by Custodio Toledo and Riccardo Agostini, posted a time of 1’41”104, the third-fastest in the first test session. Finally, the Spanish Biogas Motorsport team will field the Ferrari number 23, shared by Josep Mayola Comadira and Marc Carol Ybarra.

Qualifying is on Saturday, 13 April, from 12:30 p.m., with the race starting at 5:40 p.m.

24 Hours of Nürburgring. Qualifying races. Two four-hour races on Saturday and Sunday will build excitement for the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in the first weekend of June.

The event anticipates the next edition of the 24 Hours and offers teams the chance to access the limited entry qualifying session in the days before the endurance race. As of this year, the race appears on the Intercontinental GT Challenge calendar.

Following its historic debut win in qualifying and the 24 Hours in 2023, Frikadelli Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 number one will line up at the start, again driven by Felipe Fernandez Laser alongside the experienced Daniel Keilwitz. 

The programme. Qualifying is on Saturday 13, starting at 10 a.m., with the green flag for the first race at 5:30 p.m. The second qualifying session is on Sunday 14, at 8:15 a.m., followed by Race-2 starting at 1 p.m.

GT World Challenge Australia. Following the 12 Hours of Bathurst in mid-February, which featured competitors from the GT World Challenge Australia, the American series will hit the track this weekend at Phillip Island. This event marks the debut of the two Ferrari 296 GT3s of Arise Racing Team. 

The defending series champion, Liam Talbot, will drive the number 1 car with Chaz Mostert, while Jaxon Evans and Elliott Schutte will crew the number 8. 

Following Friday’s free practice sessions, qualifying is on Saturday 13 at 10.35 a.m., with Race-1 starting at 1 p.m. The second race will begin on Sunday at 2.55 p.m. All times are local.