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Ferrari appoints Oreca to build next-gen GT3 car

Ferrari is teaming up with French motorsport organisation Oreca for its forthcoming next-generation GT3 contender scheduled to start racing in 2023.

#52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3: Louis Machiels, Andrea Bertolini

#52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3: Louis Machiels, Andrea Bertolini

SRO

Oreca has won the tender to assemble the new contender under development on an as-yet-to-be disclosed car from Ferrari's model range, as well as to provide after-sales service.

The Paul Ricard-based organisation led by Hugues de Chaunac is taking over from Michelotto, which has built Ferrari's GT3 challengers since the 458 Italia GT3 that started racing in 2011.

Antonello Coletta, Ferrari's boss of sportscar racing, said: "The agreement with Oreca is an important starting point for the new GT3 project.

"We have some very ambitious targets given that this car will follow in the footsteps of the 488, which was the most successful model in the Prancing Horse’s history.

"In addition to our engineers’ skill and knowledge, we can count on a first-class partner like Oreca, which has achieved high-profile success in the endurance world — as a result, we look to the future with confidence."

The new car, which is being developed in-house at Ferrari under a team led by head of GT race car design Ferdinando Cannizzio, looks set to be based on the 296 GTB unveiled earlier this year.

An announcement is expected early next year on the model type ahead of the first tests of the race car.

ORECA currently dominates the LMP2 market with its 07 chassis

ORECA currently dominates the LMP2 market with its 07 chassis

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

A Ferrari spokesman stressed that the deal with Oreca did not mean the end of its long-standing relationship with Michelotto Automobili, which is based in Padua.

"This is not the end of our technical collaboration with Michelotto," he said.

"We will keep working with them on the 488 [the existing Ferrari GT3], which is not going to disappear from the race tracks, and there will be projects that we will announce in the future."

Michelotto has worked with a line of competition cars with Ferrari since the 1980s.

It has played a key role in every GT2/GTE Ferrari since the 348LM of 1994 and then the factory-sanctioned 458 and 488 GT3 cars.

Oreca, which was founded by de Chaunac in 1973, has extensive experience in GT racing.

It was a key partner in the Chrysler's Dodge Viper GTS-R GT2 programme from 1996 and continued its relationship with the American manufacturer on the Viper Competition Coup when it was accepted into the GT3 category in 2006.

Its involvement in the prototype ranks is more recent: it purchased Courage Competition in 2007 and has gone on to build a line of successful LMP2 contenders, including the current Gibson-powered 07.

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