“It is about time!” Mario Andretti exclaimed. The legend amongst motor racing’s dwelling legends is aware of of which he speaks.

A full 50 years after the manufacturing unit from Maranello made its final official begin on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ferrari is again, returning to the identical worldwide endurance racing stage the place its unique prototype equipment from the Sixties and early-Nineteen Seventies usually earned extra success for the model than something it achieved in Formulation One.

Wearing Ferrari’s conventional colours of purple and yellow, the smooth new Ferrari 499Ps will chase a debut win on Friday because the globetrotting FIA World Endurance Championship opens its season with a 1,000-mile contest of pace and stamina on the famed Sebring circuit in Florida. With its identify added to the WEC grid, the area of interest world of sports activities automotive racing has acquired the grandest of spotlights.

“I imply, it is Ferrari,” says the 82-year-old Andretti, who was signed by the late Enzo Ferrari and produced wins for the Scuderia in F1 and sports activities vehicles. “They’re such a giant asset to endurance racing. Ferrari formally coming again is large, no query about it. Talking for myself, I’ve had many unimaginable experiences in sports activities vehicles with Ferrari. Wherever they go in motor racing, Ferrari are at all times the highest draw.

“I do not know any producer on this planet that has a much bigger fan base than Ferrari. I do not care the place you go, you will see individuals sporting the Ferrari shirts and hats, waving the Ferrari flags. It is a great factor, and I count on to see all of this occur once more in sports activities automotive racing.”

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Higher nonetheless, Ferrari’s formal resumption of its prototype racing actions brings a depraved racing rivalry again to life after a half-century pause.

Do not let “Ford v Ferrari” that includes Matt Damon and Christian Bale idiot you. Years earlier than and years after the Ford household spent a fortune to topple and retreat after beating Ferrari at Le Mans, there was Ferrari vs. Porsche.

At legendary locations like Le Mans, Daytona, the Nürburgring and Sebring, the slugfest for total victories between Ferrari and Porsche was sports activities automotive racing’s model of the Yankees vs. the Crimson Sox, our Celtics vs. Lakers. Till, after all, Ferrari exited prototype racing after going head-to-head with Porsche one last time at Le Mans in 1973.

From there, the German automaker took command of endurance racing — and have become synonymous with dominating the opposition — as Ferrari’s identify amongst manufacturing unit prototype entrants light into historical past.

Since Ferrari turned its full consideration to F1, Porsche completed first at Le Mans an unparalleled 17 occasions with manufacturing unit entries, buyer vehicles, or Porsche-engined prototypes. The newest triumph with the lightning-fast Porsche 919 Hybrid was delivered in 2017 earlier than the model shuttered its marquee program.

In what appears like a scripted transfer, Ferrari’s grand comeback with the 499P has been timed to perfection. Porsche, set for twin manufacturing unit racing applications within the WEC and IMSA’s North American SportsCar Championship, can also be making its return to manufacturing unit prototype motion in 2023 with its chic new 963 mannequin.

.@FerrariHypercar historical past within the making at @sebringraceway.#WEC #FerrariHypercar #Ferrari499P pic.twitter.com/vrmF9PcMY6

— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) March 11, 2023

Having been relegated to prototype racing’s dusty previous historical past books, Ferrari finds itself within the unfamiliar function of attempting to reclaim long-lost territory to its German foe.

“It is at all times rewarding to have the goal in your again,” stated Hurley Haywood, the 74-year-old American who turned Porsche racing royalty whereas profitable extra main endurance races than any driver. “And in Porsche’s case, they have been the extent that everyone needed to rise as much as and to beat them to show themselves. That is one thing that I’ve seen in my complete profession of racing, beginning again in 1969. We have been at all times the benchmark, and that is what Ferrari and all the opposite prototype producers must reconcile themselves towards.”

The large Ferrari vs. Porsche showdown is scheduled for June on the One centesimal-anniversary working of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, however in a nod to historical past, Sebring serves as the right website for the 499Ps to launch a brand new endurance racing chapter for the model.

Steeped in fame and lore, the Scuderia’s final massive manufacturing unit prototype victory was authored in 1970 by the Italian-born and American-bred Andretti as an epic 12-hour duel between Ferrari’s 512s and the Porsche 908 entered and pushed by film star Steve McQueen and Peter Revson, thrilling the hundreds in attendance on the Floridian street course crafted from a World Struggle II Military airfield.

Main the sector away from pole place, Andretti was in his best uncatchable kind for greater than 11 hours till the transmission on his 512 Spyder surrendered and seemingly handed the win to Porsche. Pitting within the hope of getting his Ferrari repaired, the automotive was identified as terminal and in an impressed transfer, staff supervisor Mauro Forghieri referred to as the sister automotive into pit lane.

Now in a automotive that was down one lap and holding third place, Andretti was unleashed on the 5.2-mile circuit and went on to supply one of many best drives of his profession. Which, because the 1978 F1 world champion shares, nearly did not occur.

“I feel we have been 12 or 13 laps within the lead with our Ferrari Spyder in 1970; we have been dominating, after which the factor broke in that final hour,” he stated. “So I used to be prepared to depart as a result of I used to be working a dash automotive race in Studying, Pennsylvania, the subsequent day and I had my airplane there and figured, ‘Okay, I am leaving just a little bit early and that is good so I will not be in as massive of a rush to get there.’ Then Mauro Forghieri says, ‘Mario, do not take your shirt off simply but, I would like you to complete the race.’

“And I stated, ‘I do not know. I am undecided how these guys would really feel with me taking on their automotive. Ignazio [Giunti] and Nino [Vaccarella], they did all of the work all day within the automotive,’ they usually have been working third on the time. Porsche have been now main and one automotive retired and that left the Revson and McQueen Porsche on the market in entrance. McQueen obtained numerous consideration for all this, however it was Revson who put the automotive the place it was, who did not get the credit score he deserved.

“So I obtained the blessing from Ignazio and Nino, I obtained within the automotive and did not match superb; everybody’s taller than me. And I went on the market and I used to be driving like a person possessed. I feel it is the primary time ever that I went flat by means of Flip 1 and we unlapped ourselves and the remainder is historical past. Ferrari deserved to win that race. It was extremely satisfying. I’ve a giant photograph in my sports activities bar of us in victory lane and the euphoric smiles on the entire Ferrari mechanics says all the things.”

Regarded by many as the best 12 Hours of Sebring race on file, topping the end to the 1970 occasion can be loads to ask of the WEC on Friday. Nonetheless, Andretti’s prepared for the long-awaited begin of one thing new to be written by the Scuderia and its ever-present protagonist.

“Ferrari towards Porsche, Porsche towards Ferrari, in long-distance racing,” Andretti provides. “It does not get any higher than this.”