Weekend preview: Ferrari on the track at Daytona, Abu Dhabi and Estoril

The Prancing Horse cars will take centre stage this weekend in America, the United Arab Emirates and Europe.

IMSA. The 2025 sports car racing season in North America gets underway this weekend at Daytona International Speedway, and Ferrari’s presence is sure to stand out.

A staggering 12 Ferrari 296 GT3s will take to the 3.56-mile road course between the IMSA SportsCar Championship and the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at the Florida racetrack.

On-track action begins Friday for all series during the three-day Roar Before the 24 Hours of Daytona.

24 Hours of Daytona. Eight Ferraris are entered for the 63rd running of the 24 Hours of Daytona, with the twice-around-the-clock race going green on Saturday, January 25 at 1:40 p.m. ET.

In the GTD Pro class, DragonSpeed will look to defend Ferrari’s class win from 2024 with its driver lineup consisting of Albert Costa, and factory drivers Thomas Neubauer, Miguel Molina, and Davide Rigon, the latter of whom was part of last year’s winning effort. Daytona kicks off DragonSpeed’s first full season in the GTD Pro class after previously running in LMP2, and the team also brings winning experience after scoring victories at the 24 Hours in 2019, 2020 and 2022.

In the GTD class, Ferrari is represented with seven 296 GT3s – two from AF Corse, two from Triarsi Competizione and one each from Cetilar Racing, Conquest Racing and Inception Racing.

AF Corse and Conquest Racing return to Daytona after finishing second and third, respectively, on the podium in 2024. In the first car for AF Corse, factory driver Alessandro Pier Guidi and Lilou Wadoux is joined by Simon Mann, and Kei Cozzolino. In the second entry is former Ferrari Challenge North America driver Custodio Toledo, Riccardo Agostini, Conrad Laursen and the Ferrari factory driver Arthur Leclerc.

Triarsi Competizione is poised for a two-car entry at this year’s 24 Hours of Daytona with Onofrio Triarsi leading the charge alongside co-drivers Charles Scardina, Eddie Cheever and factory driver Alessio Rovera. The team also announced a second full season entry late last year and subsequently revealed an all star lineup with primary drivers Sheena Monk and Stevan McAleer joined by Mike Skeen and factory driver James Calado.

After joining the Ferrari family in September, Inception Racing continues its partnership with the brand and is entered with the driving quartet of Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff, Ollie Millroy and David Fumanelli.

In a campaign specific to the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup in 2025, Cetilar Racing begins its year-long quest at Daytona with factory driver Antonio Fuoco, Lorenzo Patrese and the father-son duo of Roberto Lacorte and Nicola Lacorte sharing a racecar for the first time.

Rounding out Ferrari’s stable in this year’s 24 Hours of Daytona is Conquest Racing. Another multi-time race winner from Ferrari Challenge North America, Manny Franco, will share driving duties with Cédric Sbirrazzuoli, Giacomo Altoè and factory driver Daniel Serra. 

IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge. This season, the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge welcomes GT3-specification machinery for the first time in series’ history with the new-for-2025 GTDX class. Ferrari is one of three manufacturers in the class and one of six in the full field ready to contest the two 45-minute races at the Roar, the first of six events this year.

AF Corse and Conquest Racing are pulling double duty at Daytona with entries in both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the VP Challenge. The teams are fielding two Ferraris 296 GT3s apiece with familiar faces behind the wheel.

Former Ferrari Challenge North America champions and the father-son duo of David Musial Sr. and David Musial Jr. have the rare opportunity to face off in the same class and vie for a victory with Conquest Racing.

Fellow Ferrari Challenge competitor and multi-time racewinner in 2024, Matias Perez Companc, will also take to the grid. Companc will lend his expertise to AF Corse teammate, former Olympian and Ferrari newcomer, AJ Muss, who rounds out the marque’s driver lineup in the VP Challenge.

For the Ferrari Challenge drivers, racing at Daytona this weekend will be doubly beneficial as the World Center of Racing hosts a separate Ferrari Challenge round later this year.

The first VP Challenge race will go green on Saturday, January 18 at 2 p.m. ET, while the second race is scheduled for Sunday, January 19 at 1:20 p.m.

24H Series. Following the 24 Hours of Dubai, the Yas Marina Circuit will host the 6 Hours of Abu Dhabi, the final act of the Middle East Trophy. Fresh from their fourth place in Dubai, Into Africa Racing by Dragon Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 number 8, driven by Xollie Letlaka, Axcil Jefferies, Stuart White, and Blake McDonald, will again appear in the Pro-Am class at the second round in the UAE.

In the same class, Scuderia Praha’s number 56 returns with Miroslav Výboh, Matúš Výboh, and Josef Král, as does the American team Era Motorsport’s number 81, featuring Dwight Merriman, Kyle Tilley, and Britain’s Jake Hill.

The Austrians of Baron Motorsport will debut with the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 number 86, with Italian drivers Philippe Prette, Angelo Negro and Edoardo Bacci taking turns alongside Masoud Jaberian.

The programme includes Friday and Saturday morning test sessions, followed by qualifying sessions at 5.40 p.m. on Saturday, 18 January. The six-hour race begins at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday, 19 January.

GT Winter Series. The first of seven rounds in the 2025 Winter Series in the Iberian Peninsula will take place at Portugal’s Estoril Circuit. Four Ferraris will compete on the track in the Cup 1 class, open to cars in the same configuration as those in the Maranello manufacturer’s one-make series championship. AF Corse will field two Ferrari 296 Challenge cars: the number 50, crewed by Christiano Maciel and Rui Aguas, and the number 76, featuring Andreas Bogh Sorensen (a 2024 Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli Europe race winner) and Benny Simonsen.

The driver line-up for Araùjo Competição’s 296 Challenge number 87 is yet to be confirmed. German team MERTEL Motorsport will race a Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, with Oscar Ryndziewicz at the steering wheel.

As with every GT Winter Series event, there are three races per round. After test sessions on Thursday and Friday, the first qualifying session will kick off at 12.10 p.m. on Saturday, 18 January, followed by the second session. Race-1, a 30-minute sprint, will begin later on Saturday at 4.20 p.m. On Sunday, 19 January, Race-2, also lasting 30 minutes, will start at 11.35 a.m., with Race-3 setting off at 3 p.m. and finishing 55 minutes later. (All times are local).