IMSA: F40, 488 bookend Ferrari GTs at Monterey

The 1989 IMSA event at Laguna Seca produced an indelible memory for lovers of the Prancing Horse. Ferrari France, Formula 1 hotshoe Jean Alesi and the brand-new twin-turbo V8 F40 LM rocked IMSA's GTO category on its series debut when the Frenchman qualified second.

If starting on the front row next to Hans Stuck in the all-conquering Audi 90 Quattro wasn't impressive enough, Alesi put Pete Halsmer's Mercury Cougar XR-7 and Steve Millen's Nissan 300ZX Turbo – all factory entries – behind his semi-privateer Ferrari.

New to the track, the series, and on European-spec Pirelli tires, the red No. 60 made a huge impression in the 60-minute race. Alesi briefly led, then held on to take third – behind an Audi 1-2 led by Stuck and teammate Hurley Haywood – after his Italian rubber surrendered to the Goodyear-shod all-wheel-drive Quattros.

In the long shadow cast by Alesi and the turbo F40 LM's debut at Laguna Seca, factory-affiliated Ferrari turbo GTs are making their return to the rechristened Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca during this weekend's IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event. Compared to the lone Ferrari France entry 27 years ago, three twin-turbo V8 Ferrari 488s will honor Alesi's efforts from 1989.

Risi Competizione's No. 62 488 and Scuderia Corsa's No. 68 488 will look to match – or improve upon – the F40 LM's podium in IMSA's two-hour race for GT Le Mans (and Prototype) cars, and in the second race for IMSA's GT Daytona (and PC) entries, Scuderia Corsa's No. 63 488 will seek its own glory.

Speaking with Alesi earlier this week, the Ferrari's Formula 1 and sports car veteran appeared to enjoy taking a trip down Laguna Seca's memory lane.

"Obviously for me it was fantastic because I was racing Formula 3000 and Formula 1 at the time," Alesi (left) told RACER. "And I had this free weekend where I was invited by Ferrari France to do Laguna Seca. In Italy, before that, I did two testing [days] in Monza developing the F40. Of course, it was like a gift to give me the chance to race in Laguna Seca. And I didn't know the track at all, so when I arrived it was one of the biggest emotional moments I have [had] because the track was unbelievable. It was amazing to be at the track. Especially the corners and going up and down."

Alesi was balancing his F3000 duties with Eddie Jordan Racing and the mid-season call-up to drive for Ken Tyrrell's F1 team when the IMSA GTO opportunity arose. With the F3000 championship in hand, Alesi skipped the final race and concentrated on F1, and with the Oct. 15 IMSA race falling between Spain (where he finished fourth) and Japan on the Grand Prix calendar, a quick trip to California to forge links with a satellite Ferrari program made sense.

To his delight, the turbo F40 LM scrambled around the twisting road course with fury.

"The Ferrari was actually very powerful," Alesi said. "We had to drop down the boost because we had Pirelli tires at the time and parts of the tire was flying away! They had to drop down the power to make the tires last. Of course, I was a young driver at the time, and when they asked me to be gentle with the throttle I didn't do it! I was spinning the wheels. It was not good for the life of the tire."

The No. 60 Ferrari spent most of the one-hour GTO race locked in a private drifting exhibition.

"What I remember is being in the middle of Stuck and Haywood with the Audi with the four-wheel drive," Alesi continued. "It was a rolling start, and I was thinking of making a kind of tricky start to lead and this is what happened, I was leading for the first lap. But the Pirelli tire was not easy to handle, I had a lot of oversteer, and I had to slow down. I was really happy to go back with the podium."

Like Alesi, Scuderia Corsa team owner Giacomo Mattioli was building his name within the Ferrari empire around the same time and shared his memories of Ferrari France's Sage, Charles Pozzi and Daniel Marin, who commissioned the F40 LM project.

"I was fortunate to have met those guys," Mattioli told RACER. "They were a big part of the old guard of Ferrari dealers. Daniel was the French importer. He had joined Charles and taken over. He was a very outspoken guy, with a big personality!

"Enzo [Ferrari] had just passed, and he had been a big presence in the factory right until the end. Daniel was motivated by the spirit of racing Ferraris, and by that racing DNA. He used to come drive down to the factory all the time, from Paris. Daniel wanted to keep the tradition, and keep the dealers racing."

Beyond the shared turbo lineage, the F40 LM and today's GTE and GT3 488s (right) are products of Ferrari's longstanding partner.

"The F40 LM was a beast!" Mattioli continued. "It was developed by Michelotto, but back then there was not the kind of support and development that we have now. Now there are extremely close ties between the teams and Ferrari and Michelotto. We shared a lot of congratulations between the team and Michelotto when we won at Sebring! I've driven an F40 on the track. The most shocking difference between what the F40 LM is and the 488 GTE and GT3 is the driver aids.

"You had to muscle the F40 around a circuit, it was a real workout, not forgiving at all! The cars are very different. The 488 GTE and GT3 has traction control, with many different adjustments, all on the steering wheel. It just makes the car a lot easier, much more forgiving to drive. The F40 had none of that!"

Mattioli credits ex-F1 man Jean Sage for the Ferrari France team making such a strong impression on its first visit to Monterey.

"Sage was a client of Daniel; he loved racing, and he became the team manager," said Mattioli (left). "Before that, he had been the team manager of the Renault F1 team. He was very passionate about Ferrari. I met him at the factory, which he would regularly visit. He collected and raced vintage Ferraris throughout his life.

"He got Jean Alesi to drive the F40 in IMSA, so the program was very much in the tradition of Ferrari racing – Jean was French, and the team was French. But obviously it was tough competition at that time."

Decades later, and after recording the 488's first win in March at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Mattioli says his early days with Ferrari and programs like the French F40 LM help drive Scuderia Corsa forward.

"My first office was at the Pista Fiorano – not even at the factory!" he remarked. "I started working for Ferrari in a summer job. I was in charge of the licensing, which was not then what it is now. To me, those gentlemen were inspiring. They became my mentors. They really took on the Ferrari DNA and it showed everywhere with the way that they presented Ferrari. I want to emulate that with Scuderia Corsa."

Knowing how special Alesi's performance was in 1989, it's a good thing the F40 LM relied on its driver's right foot, rather than the 488's traction control, to manage the rear tires.

"It is difficult to make a comparison because at the time the F40 turbo was made for power," he said. Now, it is a very complex engine, reliable, efficient, especially with the electronics nowadays. There was no electronics managing everything for me at Laguna Seca. In my time driving the F40, the engine power was always nothing or everything. This, I enjoyed."

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