New contracts, new momentum, new mindset in the Ferrari Hypercar camp

What’s the best way to celebrate a contract extension on a Friday? Win your next race on Sunday.

That’s exactly what Nicklas Nielsen did at COTA.

The Danish Le Mans winner, whose association with Ferrari dates back to 2018, signed a new multi-year deal with the Prancing Horse earlier this month. Two days later, he scored his first FIA WEC Hypercar victory since the 2025 Qatar 1812KM.

“It was the perfect race day! It was never really a question whether I was going to stay or go somewhere else, so it was not a surprise. But I’m so happy and proud to continue,” he told RACER. “I’ve only ever been with Ferrari and AF (Corse). It’s more like a family for me than a team, and everything is better in life when you’re happy to go to work.”

The victory was an emotional way to begin the next phase of his career with the fabled Italian marque.

“It had been too long,” he said. “We’d been close many times, for not just wins, but good results in general, and we just didn’t put it together (during Ferrari’s winless drought in Hypercar). So it was special. And it was surprising too, because mid-race we were not looking to be in a strong position, and we were lucky that the No.51 (Ferrari) and lead Toyota had problems.”

Coming into the COTA weekend, Ferrari’s factory Hypercar program had been struggling to reproduce the form that carried it to the 2025 World Championship. The 499P won each of the first four races that season and finished on the podium at both COTA and Bahrain. But that momentum had disappeared by the time the WEC returned to Texas this year, where everything changed.

Nielsen and his teammates in the No. 50 499P took advantage of poor reliability for Toyota’s lead car to score Ferrari’s first Hypercar victory since Qatar, moving themselves into championship contention. With three races remaining and a maximum of 78 points still available, they sit just 21 points from the lead.

Ferrari has also returned to contention in the Manufacturers’ World Championship off the back of its Lone Star Le Mans success. The Italian manufacturer is third behind Toyota and BMW, but is only 26 points from the lead.

“(The No. 50’s title chances were) maybe not gone, but it definitely looked difficult before COTA, especially with the calendar being changed as well, with fewer points now on offer,” Nielsen admitted. “Now, the mindset maybe has changed a bit, but to be honest, whenever I go, whenever we go, we want to win if we can, and right now we have nothing to lose.

“I think we’re going to go for a bit of risk if we need to. We’ll do our best to take as many points as possible, and then we will see Barcelona and Monza. But at least we’re back in the championship fight, and it would be nice to be there to fight in the end in Monza as well.”

Ferrari’s dip in form between its Le Mans victory last year and COTA this year has been difficult to pin down to a single cause.

COTA delivered an overdue return to form for Ferrari (along with some new additions to its drivers' hat collections), but this weekend at Fuji could prove to be a very different challenge. Jakon Ebrey/Getty Images

Several factors have been in play. The 499P required aerodynamic changes during the homologation process ahead of this season, while several rivals introduced substantial EVO Joker updates. At the same time, the Balance of Performance process – now kept under wraps by the rulemakers – has continued to evolve.

For Nielsen, however, the fundamental strength of Ferrari’s LMH remains intact.

“It’s not a completely different car from last year; the car is still good,” Nielsen responded when asked about the effect the tweaks to the 499P have had so far this season.

“But you know, it’s been a bit strange at certain tracks for us. If we take São Paulo, it’s usually not a track where we are really strong, and this year we were quite good there. The car was really behaving well, and that took us a bit by surprise, to be honest. Then Fuji is always a track where we struggle a bit, so let’s hope it’s one of those cases where we come here, we don’t really expect much, and then we are there.”

Nielsen isn’t the only Ferrari driver arriving at Fuji with his future secure.

Phil Hanson also had his contract renewed ahead of Lone Star Le Mans, while Yifei Ye recently put pen to paper on a new deal of his own. Ye’s extension was announced just hours after Nielsen’s, and the news generated significant attention in his native China.

“It was not as big as when I won Le Mans,” he told RACER. “But it still ended up on Chinese national TV! As the only Chinese driver working for a factory team, I kind of carry the responsibility to deliver good results. The fact that I am extending with Ferrari is encouraging for me. And I have had so much support from fans.

“Antonello (Coletta) does an amazing job at managing people. The engineers, drivers, mechanics, all have confidence because we are not made to feel scared of having a bad race. Of course, in racing, you have to be fast, but if you do a good job and behave well, you are treated well, and that goes a long way.”

Like Nielsen, Ye hopes the security of a new contract can be followed by a strong finish to the WEC season.

Ye and his teammates in the privately-entered 499P don’t have to worry about the Manufacturers’ standings, since their car is not eligible to score manufacturer points. But climbing the drivers’ standings and helping Ferrari’s two factory cars whenever possible remains a clear objective after a difficult season through five races.

“We can still play a part to help Ferrari,” he said. “We will focus on each race individually, and try and get on the podium, maybe even win a race if conditions allow. We’ve had an unlucky season; we haven’t been able to maximise what we have. The pace has been good, but we’ve not been able to put everything together.”

Whether Ferrari can follow its COTA breakthrough with another standout result at Fuji remains to be seen. Early signs from Friday practice suggested another difficult weekend could be ahead if conditions remain dry.

The 499Ps have yet to attempt a qualifying simulation, however, having run only the medium Michelin tire during FP1 and FP2. Their true performance potential therefore remains unclear.

And with rain forecast for Saturday and Sunday, the six-hour race could become a very different proposition anyway – one that could potentially play into the hands of Ferrari’s drivers.

“This year we’ve managed to improve the car’s long-run performance and tyre degradation, so if people make mistakes we can capitalize,” Ye pointed out. “And if it rains, it may help us to recover if we struggle for pace.”