Ferrari forced to make Hypercar aero changes after 2026 re-homologation

Reigning World Endurance champion Ferrari AF Corse will start the defense of its 2025 titles with a new look to the livery of its 499P Hypercars, but more importantly, with the cars featuring significantly revised aerodynamic detailing for the 2026 season.

The aero changes have come about not as a result of Ferrari requesting a "Joker" upgrade, but rather at the insistence of the championship rule makers after all Hypercars were re-homologated post the 2025 season at the WindShear facility in North Carolina.

Most other 2026-spec Hypercars are introducing significant Joker upgrades with the revised BMW and Cadillac cars having already raced at Daytona in IMSA competition last month, and with Toyota and Alpine set to debut their 2026-spec cars in Qatar.

Aston Martin’s Valkyrie LMH had already been homologated at Windshear as a result of its campaign in IMSA GTP in 2025 and Genesis Magma Racing’s GMR001 car is a new-for-2026 WEC entrant.

That leaves just the Ferrari 499P and Peugeot 9X8 from the WEC grid to have been examined at Windshear for the first time in unamended form, the re-homologation necessary after testing ceased at Sauber’s Hinwil facility in Switzerland, previously the mandatory wind tunnel for Hypercar homologation, as the site was refocused on supporting Audi’s Formula 1 efforts.

The changes come from differences between the specific facilities undertaking the testing but it is clear that some are surprised by the extent of the changes required.

The Hypercar, and in North America the IMSA GTP, rulesets are defined by cars built within a defined performance window, with further fine tuning provided by a Balance of Performance process designed to permit the closest possible racing and prevent the need for costly development.

The changes to the Ferrari look set to remove and amend several aerodynamic surfaces from the all-conquering 499Ps, the changes affecting both factory cars and the returning No. 83 AF Corse entered car that took the overall win at the 2025 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Whilst imagery of the 2026 car has not yet been released it is understood to involve reduction of the size of front dive planes, removal of top surface Gurneys behind and inboard of the front wheels, details changes to surfaces on the wing endplates and bodywork behind the rear wheels, removal of significant Gurneys on the trailing edges of both the engine cover and rear wing, and some more subtle changes in underbody aero.

“If we start from the front, we rechecked all the flicks on the bumpers (believed to be a reference to smaller front dive planes – understood to be around 60-70% the size of the 2025 items)," Ferrari’s head of Endurance Race Cars Ferdinando Cannizzo told RACER. “We changed the way we change the air flows on the upper body above the wheel by removing – following the request of the Federation – some Gurneys and we replaced them with true aerodynamic surfaces. On the front of the underfloor, we tweaked the flow deviation mechanisms in order to adjust the balancing of the vehicle.

“At the back there’s a small gurney on the outlet which we have on the underside of the side panels, and, more importantly we have redesigned the engine cover removing a large gurney which we had on the trailing edge.

“We have a much bigger Gurney on the rear wing plates, and we have redesigned the sidewall, behind the back wheels in order to optimize aerodynamic flow.

“These are the intervention areas. They are minimal, but they are effective, and they allowed us, without touching the main surfaces of the vehicle, to reposition in this performance window.”

Coupling those changes with the introduction of a new range of Michelin tires for the 2026 season and with the significant restrictions placed on testing in the Hypercar class means Ferrari will be unclear as to where it stands against their 2026 competitors, as confirmed by Ferrari Global Head of Endurance and Corse Clienti Antonello Coletta:

“One of the main differences has been to be able to manage the tires well and to be able to manage them throughout various stints and to be able to pull out the maximum performance from this tire," he said. “We will have to be good at understanding this quickly. Unfortunately, we’ve tested very little. We don’t have a lot of trials and tests, which is a shame because tests help us to improve, and this makes it stronger and stronger. We are all in the same situation, and we will see, and we hope to be able to improve this way too with this new form of tire.”

So with a new, and in detail form, significantly different aero package that has removed some key elements from the 499P package, coupled with the challenges of a new tire, there is potentially a lot of work to do if Ferrari’s position in the pecking order is to be maintained in 2026.

Peugeot has not yet confirmed to RACER whether its 2026 9X8 has any enforced amendments though sources suggest that there have been changes made to that car too on the orders of the rulemakers.