Miguel Molina will be one of the six drivers who will represent Ferrari in their return to the fight for absolute victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This weekend, he is racing at Daytona in a GT, the Ferrari 296 GT3.
Miguel Molina will fight to return Ferrari to the top in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, something that the Italian brand has not achieved since the triumph of Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory at the wheel of the Ferrari 250LM in 1965. The man from Girona, who in recent years he has competed in GT with a Ferrari, he will be one of the six drivers of the Ferrari 499P, the Hypercar of Maranello.
In 2023 we will have two drivers competing for absolute titles at the wheel of Ferrari cars. Carlos Sainz, who will be racing for the Scuderia in Formula 1 for the third season, is joined by Miguel Molina, who will form part of the Ferrari Hypercar team. Together with the Italian team, he will compete in the World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Molina has driven for Ferrari since his departure from Audi, with whom he competed for seven seasons in the DTM, going so far as to achieve two victories in the German contest. From 2017 to 2022, Molina has been part of AF Corse, Ferrari’s official GT team, with which he achieved third place in the GTE Pro category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2022.
Likewise, Molina has accumulated significant experience in events such as the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, the IMSA or the European Le Mans Series, where he was proclaimed champion of the LMGTE category in 2021. In all these events, he has shown Ferrari that he is the ideal man to compete in the first category of the WEC.
“I am very happy to have this opportunity and I want to thank Ferrari for believing in me. Being able to compete in the premier class of the FIA WEC is one of the most important things in my career at a sporting level,” Molina declared.
“It is a pleasure to defend the colors of Ferrari in an important year, 50 years after its last race in the highest endurance category. I have no words to explain how I feel, because this achievement represents the pinnacle of my career and a dream that I’ve been chasing for a long time,” he adds.
Molina will share car number 50 – in reference to the years that Ferrari has not competed in the main endurance class – with Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen, while the other prototype, number 51, will be driven by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and the former Formula 1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi.
The Ferrari 499P has been created to regain the crown of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The legendary Italian brand has a total of nine victories in the legendary endurance test and is only surpassed in the list of winners by Porsche and Audi.
Adapted to the new rules that prevail in the WEC, the 499P has a hybrid power unit that forms a V6 twin-turbo combustion engine and an electric motor and energy recovery system based on its experience in F1. In total, the Italian powertrain offers a total of 670 hp, as limited by the regulation.
Molina competes this weekend in the 24 Hours of Daytona with the Ferrari 296 GT3, with which he has classified in a discreet seventeenth position in his category, GTD. It will undoubtedly be a demanding training session for what will come later this season.