Red Mist: Big news for Tifosi this weekend is Le Mans. But…

But back at Le Mans, the AF Corse – how many of you knew that AF stands for Amato Ferrari - the glorious Ferrari 499Ps arrive in France unbeaten in 2025, and on the threshold of a hat-trick at the world's most famous and enduring 24-hours of endurance racing.

Now that’s dominance! Something Ferrari hasn’t seen in Formula 1 since the early 2000s with Michael and the dream team. Those of us who can remember dream of those days. But here we have them back. Albeit in the WEC. Wonderful.

Before we look too hard at Le Mans, let’s not get carried away about how useless the Scuderia is in F1 right now — because it isn’t. And once Le Mans is all said and done Sunday evening, there’s still the small matter of the Canadian Grand Prix.

An interesting one, that. Considering Ferrari was so strong at Monaco. And we didn’t do all that badly in Spain either — good enough to vault into second in the Constructors’ chase. If that means anything. But it does.

And with Montreal’s mix of Barcelona-like power needs and a few pretty tight Monacoesque bits, maybe there’ll be a little more to smile about later Sunday evening. Wouldn’t a double be lovely? Dreamy. But lovely.

Back to Le Mans. Unbeaten in the three rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship so far in 2025, all three Ferraris headed into the 24-Hour Hyperpole. Although Cadillac locked out the front row, it's a long race and Maranello’s quest for its twelfth overall Le Mans 24 win is off to a decent start already.

Ferrari is the favourite, one could say. The team to beat in France.. Even better is that, unlike for the rest of the WEC season, Le Mans has its own Balance of Performance system, which puts the red and yellow cars in pretty good stead.

For the record, the three Ferrari 499Ps will run 515 kilowatts and 896 megajoules at a minimum weight of 1,042 kg this weekend. We won on 508 kW, 889 MJ and 1,043 kg BoP last year — when Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina drove the number 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P Hybrid to victory.

The 51 car, of course, won in 2023, and Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi will be back for more in 2025. And never write off Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Philip Hanson in the yellow privateer #83 Ferrari.

Being Le Mans, Ferrari’s biggest threat has to be the two Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010s, which won the 2021 and ’22 races to complete a five-race winning sweep for the team. The most successful Le Mans driver in the field, four-time winner Sébastien Buemi, shares the #8 car with triple winner Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries race in historic livery in the #7 car.

Porsche has not had a great WEC season, but chasing a record 20th Le Mans 24 Hour win, the Penske factory 963s can never be underestimated. Behind the big three, so to say, there’s a splendid Hypercar tussle — and quite literally any of them can also win overall. The upstarts of 2025, BMW and Alpine, are both right on the pace and good for a shock win.

Alpine has also impressed so far this WEC season. And speaking of the French, Peugeot will run a new spec on its 9X8s. Cadillac has also struggled this season, but it’s taking no prisoners with no fewer than four thundering V-Series.R entries at Le Mans. Last but not least among the Hypercars, Aston Martin returns to Le Mans with a pair of wailing V12 Thor Team Valkyries.

So, it’s a superb racing weekend. One of great expectations at Le Mans. Maybe less so in Canada. All the same — bring it on!