Ferrari prepared to fight to the end for WEC GTE title

With just the 6 Hours of Bahrain remaining in this year's schedule, the #91 Porsche Team Manthey leads the WEC GTE Pro standings on 144 points, with AF Corse Ferrari's #51 and #71 entries sitting 14 and 15 points back respectively.

“Drawing a balance of the 2015 season, we can say that this has been an important year in terms of wins, especially regarding the United States and Le Mans," said GT and Corse Clienti racing director Antonello Coletta.

"We will battle for the FIA WEC title in Bahrain and we can still mathematically win the championship with both cars.

"The team orders are to win the race, that’s it. It will be a long day and anything can happen.

"This season, we haven’t been particularly lucky, we lost podium finishes at the eleventh hour on some occasions, like at Le Mans, but we are still in contention."

Staircase of talent

Speaking about the young drivers of the GT programs, Coletta underlined the cohesion of the current group and the Italian nature of the whole effort.

"The goal is to try and breed new young talents, like what happened in the past with the Challenge champions moving up to GT3 and WEC competition," he said.

“I want to underline the number of Italian drivers in our line-up. We have a Finn [Toni Vilander], who is almost Italian, while [James] Calado is really merging well with the team.

"We want to continue with our traditions, language and routines with a winning Italian product."

Lastly, Coletta addressed the concerns about the Balance of Performance for the new 488 GTE, which was unveiled at Mugello during the Finali Mondiali weekend.

“Sometimes being the strongest sometimes makes your life harder, and the BoP will be an unknown factor," he said.

"So far, we have been managing this aspect quite well. The goal is not to be too penalised, but we talked with the technicians to be prepared for the new challenge.”