Ferrari is planning a radical overhaul of its triple Le Mans 24 Hour-winning 499P Le Mans Hypercar for next year’s World Endurance Championship.
The Italian manufacturer could invoke three or all four of the remaining evo joker performance upgrades allowed before the end of 2027 in time for the new season.
Ferdinando Cannizzo, technical boss of Ferrari’s endurance racing programmes, explained that the plan is to use “three or four” jokers on the car introduced in 2023 during the marque’s first press call of Le Mans week on Wednesday.
“I guess around three,” he said when asked to clarify the number by Autosport. “But it could be four depending on the interpretation.”
Multiple updates covered by one chapter of the technical regulations in theory count only as a single joker. A manufacturer competing in the Hypercar division of the WEC needs the permission of the twin governing bodies of the series, the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, to introduce jokers.
Cannizzo confirmed that discussions about the future developments of the 499P were already underway with the series governance and that he was confident they will get the sign-off for 2027.
He would not reveal which areas of the car the jokers will focus on: “We will decide to tackle different areas of the car in an integrated way, which is the same as when we conceived the car.”
Ferdinando Cannizzo, Ferrari Head of Endurance Race Cars
Photo by: Davide Cavazza
Taking all, or the majority, of the jokers for next year makes sense for Ferrari, because otherwise it would lose them. Each LMH and LMDh is allowed five evo jokers over its initial lifespan and then a further pair over the course of the two-year extension to the current rulesets through to the end of the 2029 season.
The single joker used by Ferrari so far was introduced for the Interlagos round of the WEC in July 2024 and focussed on brake cooling.
Ferrari has always insisted that it chose not to introduce any jokers for 2026 rather than was prevented from doing so by the rule makers. That came after its domination of the opening races of last year’s campaign, which culminated in it winning both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles.
Cannizzo said that a number of what he described as “variables” this year resulted in this decision. These included the new range of Michelin slick tyres, incorporating 50% sustainable materials, that came on stream at the start of the year.
But he explained that the gains to be made with the car as it stands were becoming ever smaller: “At some point when you are working on extracting more performance, you reach a limit and you need to make changes.”
Cannizzo stressed that the developments for 2029 would be based on the existing homologation and that Ferrari is not planning an all-new car.
This is another option open to manufacturers: a second homologation is allowed over the lifecycle of the rules. Minor aero changes have been made to the 499P for 2026 as a result of the rehomologation of the entire Hypercar grid.
All cars were tested in the Windshear windtunnel in the USA and had to fit into a subtly refined aerodynamic performance window laid down in the regulations.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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