All About The Ferrari 499P: 24 Hours Of Le Mans' Three-Peat Champion

The Ferrari 499P has won at the world-renowned 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race for the past three years — in 2023, 2024, and now 2025. This is a testament not only to Ferrari, but also to its drivers. Credit is particularly due to the non-factory AF Corsa team that won the race in 2025 — notice that the winning car shown above is not Ferrari red, but rather yellow, piloted by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Phil Hanson.

This three-time LeMans winner falls under the LMH, or Le Mans Hypercar class, and it uses a hybrid powertrain. The powertrain consists of a mid-mounted 3.0-liter V6 that puts out 680 horsepower and drives the rear wheels through an Xtrac seven-speed gearbox, combined with a front-axle energy recovery system that can provide a four-wheel drive effect at speeds over 118 mph (190 kmh). 

That number in the name comes from the 499cc volume capacity of each of its six cylinders. The 499P's ICE engine is actually derived from the architecture of the 296 GTB's racing version, the 296 GT3, with its turbochargers nestled within the 120-degree vee angle of the V6 engine, otherwise known as a hot-vee setup. 

Since the 499P's engine also has to support suspension and transmission loading as a fully stressed member, it had to be designed from scratch. The new Ferrari F80 road car is set to receive a good bit of this engine technology.

While Ferrari is not currently able to claim the most wins at Le Mans, it does hold third place at time of writing. The Ferrari 499P that won at Le Mans in 2025 went 3,276 miles in 24 hours, which equals an average speed of 136.5 mph hour after hour. Another interesting factoid is that, as a result of having three consecutive Le Mans victories, Ferrari now has the right to keep the winner's trophy — forever.

Aerodynamics are an important part of the Ferrari 499P's winning ways, with the regulations requiring a single body configuration that cannot be changed for five years. While the 499P has been styled with some visual similarities to Ferrari's road cars, there are elements of Ferrari's Formula 1 cars in the nose section, while cornering stability in the corners was a primary concern, shown by the massive rear wing and central tail fin. The lack of cooling inlets in the car's sidepods may indicate that Ferrari is using the floor area as a source of cooling air for the 499P's engine. 

Bottom line, all of this technological development has shown that Ferrari is at the top of its game when it comes to competing and winning at Le Mans, with three straight wins as proof of its domination in the LMH class.