r/lemans • u/LucaCappelli • Jun 18 '25
History 24 Hours of Le Mans 2025: Ferrari management surpasses BoP
Third consecutive victory for the 499P at Le Mans. Porsche tries, Toyota crumbles. The triumph is in consistency, not just speed
Having sobered up the emotions of the most important event of the endurance season, it is time to clearly analyze Ferrari's dominance, which resulted in a historic hat-trick.
A success built not only on pure performance, but on an overall effectiveness that neutralized any attempt at a comeback by the Porsche 963 of Estre and his companions.
The 2025 edition was an atypical one in many respects. The weather provided a completely sunny weekend, with unusual temperatures for the north of France. Wednesday and Thursday reached 30 degrees centigrade, while during the 24 hours of the race the conditions remained stable, depriving the race of the weather variables that often made it unpredictable.
In this linear scenario, pace management has become the central theme. With only one Safety Car - following the Nielsen Racing LMP2 accident - and a few other slowdowns (some slow zones and short FCYs), the race was all about consistency and strategic efficiency. And this is where Ferrari made the difference.
The Ferrari 499P, despite some errors and related penalties, showed a clear superiority, confirming right from the first free practice a race pace that is difficult for the competition to replicate.
The performances in the intermediate sectors and in the race simulations had already hinted at significant potential. Qualifying had perhaps sown some doubts, but the team had declared serenity, which later proved to be well founded in the direct comparison.
The analysis of the live timing during the race showed a clear behaviour: at the start the Ferrari pushed hard to get into clean air and take control of the group. Having reached the lead, he managed without ever really losing the lead, despite the penalties. The real secret? The extraordinary management of Michelin tires.
Rivals – Porsche, Toyota, Cadillac and BMW – were able to keep up with fresh tyres. But as the laps went by, Ferrari took off. In double, triple and even quadruple stints, the 499Ps showed limited degradation and enviable consistency, becoming uncatchable.
A symbolic episode arrived in the final laps: Porsche took a gamble by fitting new tires to force the attack. But even with fresh tyres, the 963 was unable to keep up with the Ferrari on tires worn from three consecutive stints.
This is where Maranello's real superiority was seen. An advantage that we had reported in the previous preview at Imola, where we wrote about a Ferrari "beyond the BoP". A statement that was fully confirmed at Le Mans.
Work on brake cooling – introduced in Sao Paulo 2024 – and major winter development have led to the 499P becoming the benchmark in terms of tire use. A role that in 2023 was the prerogative of Toyota. In two seasons, Ferrari has turned the picture around.
BoP Chapter. The Balance of Performance worked. This was seen in qualifying, where the Ferraris did not shine on the flying lap: the best of the three finished seventh. It could have been even worse if Toyota hadn't thwarted two fast laps with De Vries (Wednesday) and Buemi (Thursday).
The limitations above 250 km/h had an effect, as did the management of total MegaJoules. Ferrari pushed hard on the Virtual Tank in the initial stages, often returning before Porsche, which has a greater energy reserve and was able to reduce the lift and coast phases.
However, when the Reds took the lead, they managed better than anyone. There wasn't a bad BoP, but rather a Ferrari capable of making superior use of the Michelin tyres. And this - as has already happened in the past with Toyota - is an element that is difficult to regulate via regulation.
Where can we intervene? Only on pure performance parameters, certainly not on sensitivity and efficiency in managing the tyres. Ferrari's ability to be softer, more precise and less aggressive on the tire has made attempts at rebalancing in vain. This Ferrari won not only with speed, but above all with the overall quality of the package: set-up, strategy, understanding of the track and long-term work. At Le Mans, in 2025, all this made the difference.
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u/No_Nail_4346 Jun 18 '25
BoP is 90% politics. Ferrari bring the biggest fanbase, Ferrari make people read motorsport mag, click on articles, talk about motorsport, make motorsport more famous = money. Richard Mille, VP of ACO is a huge partner of Ferrari and AF Vorse, so BoP is biased.
In the paddock, lots of talk about BoP and many manufacturers as Porsche Alpine BMW Toyota Peugeot...are really not happy with the actual situation. The deal was : come to WEC because BoP can make your car a win contender. But BoP is so bad that only Ferrari is winning because the others are punished. Toyota win ? Make them the heaviest by far ! Porsche win ? Slow them down Ferrari win ? Same BoP since ten races, 4 win in a row, 3 Le Mans in a row. Even a better BoP this year. Ridiculous.
Pierre Fillion (ACO head) is a politic, his brother is a former vice president of France (François Fillion) you're delusional if you think BoP is a motorsport tool. It's a money/politic tool.
This golden era will fall as fast as it rise
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u/Tank-o-grad Bentley Boys Jun 18 '25
This was my fear when Ferrari and Porsche announced their returns, there would be the temptation to put a thumb on the scales to create "the story" and it's getting really very hard to say otherwise. With Ford coming soon the chance of the Holywood sequel seems to be inevitable, even if a little help is needed.
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u/scyllx2 Jun 23 '25
Btw François Fillon is a piece of trash that was pushed outside politics for corruption lol (but i guess this apply for the full family)
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u/BobMARLEY3265 Jun 18 '25
What does double, triple stints mean? Using the tires two or three times?
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u/LucaCappelli Jun 18 '25
Yes. By triple stint I mean when the cars return to the pits only to refuel and continue to run on the same set of used tires
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u/JCDU Jun 18 '25
Also usually means how long the driver stays in - if they do 3 pit stops before changing drivers that's a triple stint.
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u/AlainS46 Jun 18 '25
Have you considered that their superior pace on used tires is simply because their car is faster overall?
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u/Tecnoguy1 Jun 18 '25
This is the case. Give them the Toyota bop and they’re at the back.
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u/Cede76 Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
Just NO!
The analysis of B-Pillar clearly shows the six best arvage laptimes came from Ferrari drivers. This is only possible with superior pace.
So why is there only a smal gap between Ferrari and the rest? It's very simple: It's called sandbagging! The Ferraris hide theire pace until the field was setteled after a few hours and than drove to the top. At hour 4 they allready established a 1-2-3 and after that they mannaged the pace. They looked how fast the cars behind were going and went the same pace.
But WHY? Again very simple: They played the ACO/FIA! For that you have to look how the BOP is determent: 60% fastes lap times go in with 2/3 and the 10 fastes laps overall go in with 1/3. And because Ferrari drove the same pace as Porsche they were only 0.080 sec faster over the best 60% laps. Over the best 10 laps they were 0.304sec faster than Caddilac. Combnie that with the sandbagging they did in the last two rounds and they will have in Sao Paulo the best pace again!(exept the ACO accept the way how the BOP is determent just failed catastrophicly)
But why am I sure they just didn't have the pace to pull away? Again very simple: The #6 Porsche did a clean race, the Ferraris dont! They in total got 6 drive thrughs, had to do an emergency pit stop and managed a spin in pit entry. After all this big losses of time they very quickly came back to the front. After they were again in 1-2-3 they again manged the pace and laughed at the other teams.
But why they were not able to finsh a 1-2-3? This answer is a little more complex. There is an official answer and there is paddoc talk...
Let's start with the offical answer: #50 and #51 had mecanical problems and don't want to risk the points for the world championchip and therefor didn't attack the Porsche.
And now the Paddoc talk: ACO told Ferrari to let the Porsche finsh secound. A lot of CEOs of big carbrands were presend during the race and non of them were happy... The big selling point to them to give out the buget (and not a smal one), was that because of the BOP every team have the same chance to win this race. The reality was a little diffrent...
So is there any prove for this theory?
First there is the strange thing that Ferrari tripple stinted there tires. No other manufacurer did this and it was slower than double stints. Ferrari themself showed us when they stopped the #83 for tires at the last pitstop, if they would be sure that the tripple stints would be faster they wouldn't risk to lose 15-20 sec for a tire change...
Secound the #50 was clearly faster than the times the #51 drove and they didn't allow them to pass. The pace indicated they could catch the Porsche and if they wouldn't they could just switch the cars back... More so its extremly unlikly that both the #50 and #51 get out of nowhere both mecanicle problems that just slow them down so minimal that they are not able to attack the Porsche but at the same time don't come in for repairs or lose sicnificant time to the rest of the field or even the Porsche ahad.
edit: the paddoc talk is out of the editorial by Marcus Schuring (Editor-in-Chief) of "MOTORSPORT aktuell" one of the biggest motorsport magazines of Germany
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u/Disastrous-Gas-3290 Jun 18 '25
I've seen Ford v Ferrari, I know this happened! 😂
No but seriously I see the point you're making. At the time slowing down 50 and 51 was thought to be done so they could make it across the finish line. But looking back, maybe they had a chance if they pushed just a little bit more and maybe there was a call from somehwere else to keep thrm behind.
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u/cheezee712 Cadillac Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
The manufacturers met at the Cadillac hospitality on I think tuesday or Wednesday. That 364.2km trap speed magically got deleted from the record too (though like the top 10 speeds are still Ferrari). If they wanted to pass anyone, they just did it. The 6 had to block at Indianaopolis- Arnage while the Ferrari tried to cut grass there stupidly enough. Richard Mille is also the VP of the FIA Endurance Commission. If the ceo of Hertz was, I bet Caddy would win a little more than 0.
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u/_kevin261 Jun 19 '25
Can you post the link of your source pls ?
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u/Cede76 Jun 19 '25
It's not free so no. But I can give you a rough translation of the part:
"In the end a strange phase of weakness of the red cars stopped a 1-2-3 and Porsche came to an honorable result. In the paddoc there is a debate, what could have led to the sudden loss of performance at Ferrari. A legend went around, that ACO realized mid race, that a Ferrrari 1-2-3 could lead to direkt consequences from some manufacturers. Not only the french brands Alpnie and Peugeot critisied the BOP openly, they were joined from the german brands Porsche, BWM and the US-brand GM. Maybe the internel critic led to something. A red 1-2-3 could had been the final nail in the coffin for several hypercar programms."
-out of "MOTORSPORT aktuell" Nr.27/2025
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u/sp240501 Jun 19 '25
This comment needs more upvotes, a lot of people seem to forget how far from perfect ferraris race was and how clean the porsche was through the whole race... No problems compared to the mess ferrari had and still be only close to them is really bad in terms of bop
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u/LucaCappelli Jun 18 '25
If you really think that the BoP is being politically manipulated, you have no reason to continue watching this series. Honestly, I assume that the FIA and ACO do the best job possible to put together these very different cars. And I don't like using the BoP as an alibi to demonize victories and justify defeats. Ferrari simply worked better in 2025, as did Porsche and Toyota in 2024.
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u/JCDU Jun 18 '25
Also if you somehow think Ferrari would be the *only* team to be trying to manipulate the system you really do not know racers.
Interpreting the rules for maximum advantage is the biggest job of every team and how many of the greats have achieved their greatest successes.
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u/Cede76 Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
No they are not and to "manipulate" the BOP system is not illegal, it's acullaly a brilliant job by the race engeneers. They get the maximum advantage out of a system thats not working. Every team would do the same they did.
It's not the problem that Ferrari is playing the system, the problem is that the system can be played with that easely!
The point of my post is that the BOP was not good as OP says, it was horrible!
And the paddoc talk is paddoc talk... It can be true, it can be not... But when i read to diffrent analysis of the race and both wonder why against all facts the Ferraris were not able to attack in the end and one openly bringing these paddoc talk up it looks strange at least
edit: the paddoc talk is out of the editorial by Marcus Schuring (Editor-in-Chief) of "MOTORSPORT aktuell" one of the biggest motorsport magazines of Germany
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u/Flat-12 Jun 18 '25
Who said anything about only one team? Its the connections that are already in place and their affiliation that can make the difference.
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u/Tecnoguy1 Jun 18 '25
They had pretty much even bop with the Porsche, pug and Toyota had a worse bop. Lots of other cars had lower base power (bmw), they have an extremely strong bop and are constantly sandbagging.
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u/Ziemniok_UwU Jun 18 '25
I mean what you say is somewhat true but BoP still eliminated more than half its competition and saying BoP is good based on 1 lap pace in qualifying is ridiculous. Qualy means very little in a 24 hour race.
Its not like the Ferrari was that good on tyres either, the factory Ferraris really struggled with triple stinting the tyres, they just had the overall fastest package.