At Fuji special appointment for Alessio Rovera and the Vista AF Corse team.
The FIA World Endurance Championship celebrates at the 6 Hours of Fuji, in a wonderful setting, the 100th race since its “re-introduction” in 2012 and this special appointment for Alessio Rovera and the Vista AF Corse team takes on a special importance in view of 2025 rainbow hopes. On the weekend of September 28 in Japan, in fact, the World Endurance Championship reaches the seventh and crucial penultimate round of a very long season inaugurated in February and then ending in November in Bahrain.
Reduced from a demanding string of international stages (in sequence: Spa, Nurburgring, Austin, Silverstone and Valencia), Ferrari’s official driver has already reached the circuit located in Oyama, about one hundred kilometers southwest of Tokyo, where awaiting him is the trusty number 21 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 he shares with crewmates François Heriau and Simon Mann. In the championship, the trio is fresh off two difficult trips (Brazil and the United States) that did not allow them to move up the standings after a positive first half of the season. Strengthened in particular by their success at the 6 Hours of Spa and their podium finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Rovera and his teammates nevertheless retained that second place that keeps them in the game, even though the top of the LMGT3 class is now 19 points away.
Between perfectly divided Prototypes and GTs, a total of 36 cars will compete on Fuji’s 4,563 meters. The FIA WEC kicks off the on-track action on Friday, Sept. 26, with two free practice sessions, both 90 minutes long, scheduled at 10:15 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. (3:15 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. in Italy); Saturday’s third free practice session at 9:50 a.m. (2:50 a.m. Italian time) followed by qualifying, which gets underway at 2:20 p.m. (7:20 a.m.). The 6 Hours of Fuji takes place on Sunday, September 28 at 11 a.m. local time, 4 a.m. in Italy.
“Last year at Fuji we went to pole position – recalls Rovera – then on Sunday we were really unlucky, this year we are going back with similar specifications to those of three weeks ago in Austin, among other things unfortunately with the same weight, still discounting some ballast, but looking at the precedent of 2024 I think that at least at the level of tuning we can count on a good starting basis. Not making mistakes and the fundamental concreteness of the whole team, including the crew, will make the difference: we are all called upon to perform our tasks to the fullest. The Japanese one is certainly not one of my favorite circuits, that’s no secret, however, it won’t be a problem, I can’t wait to get on track because we just have to focus on scoring as many points as possible and finish ahead of our direct rivals for the title so that we can then play it all in Bahrain”.
