Alessandro Pier Guidi, Davide Rigon, Daniel Serra and Miguel Molina have lapped with the new GT3 of the Italian firm at the Portimao circuit. The brand is working against the clock ahead of the car’s debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona.
The calendar is unforgiving and with the start of the new season getting closer, Ferrari has to pick up the pace. With this in mind, the Prancing Horse firm has carried out a three-day test with the new Ferrari 296 GT3 at the Autodromo Internacional del Algarve, in Portimao. The silhouette of the 24 Hours of Daytona is increasingly present on the horizon.
Ferrari faces the double development of two competition vehicles that will mark, without a doubt, their endurance performance. Much of the attention is on the LMH prototype with which the brand will return to the queen class of resistance in 2023 after several decades away from these instances. Nevertheless, the Ferrari 296 GT3 has a very important weight on the manufacturer’s goals.
Although all eyes are on Ferrari’s LMH, the brand is working at a good pace with its new GT3
With the difficult task of replacing the Ferrari 488 GT3the brand’s new GT3 vehicle will not only compete in the usual venues in which it is committed to these technical regulations, such as the IMSA, the SRO championships, the DTM or the ADAC GT Masters -among other series-, but it will also is called to be a protagonist in the WEC and in the 24 Hours of Le Mans when the transition between GTE and GT3 vehicles is consumed.
In Ferrari they know it and they are putting special care in the development of its new GT3 vehicle that will debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January 2023. For this reason, the Italian brand has completed this three-day test in Portugal in which up to four official manufacturer drivers have participated, who have also ridden alongside James Calado with the brand’s LMH on the Portuguese track.
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hard work
The pilots in charge of carrying out these tests in Portugal have been Alessandro Pier Guidi, Davide Rigon, Daniel Serra and the Spaniard Miguel Molina. All four have been able to provide valuable information to the engineers, among other things because during the three days of testing various track conditions have been encountered. The short-lived showers have played in favor of the brand.
Own Daniel Serra has approved the test in Portimao with the Ferrari 296 GT3: «We have concluded three positive days of testing, completing all the activities we had planned and collecting a lot of data that we will now begin to analyze. The goal is to optimize the performance of the car following the direction that we already have clearly marked”.
daytona on the horizon
For now, everything is good words around the Ferrari 296 GT3, a model that should be remembered has a 3.0-liter V6 turbo engine in a central-rear position. This engine offers about 600 hp -a figure that will be limited by the ‘BoP’ and 710 Nm of maximum torque. The engine block is associated with a 6-speed sequential gearbox.
This mechanical set should lead the Ferrari 296 GT3 to success from January next year when debut at the 24 Hours of Daytona, first scoring event of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Ahead of him is the goal of trying to surpass the almost 500 individual victories that the Ferrari 488 GT3 has achieved since its launch in 2016.
Photos: Ferrari Racing