Ferrari BIC stampede

Bahrain International Circuit is set to host the first round of the 2019 season of Ferrari Challenge Europe, one of the most admired one-make car race series.

The event will run from tomorrow until Sunday and is expected to attract scores of Prancing Horse enthusiasts from across the Middle East and Europe.

The championship, boasting a legacy dating back to 1993, has attracted to date more than 1,000 drivers globally, as well as featuring many memorable races and thrilling performances.

“The Ferrari Challenge takes place at some of the world’s most famous, state-of-the-art racing tracks and Bahrain International Circuit is certainly fit to be the first to feature in this season’s calendar,” said Giorgio Turri, GM at Ferrari Middle East.

The series of activities during the four action-packed Ferrari Racing Days will also include the F1 Clienti and XX Programmes events that follow a separate calendar, occasionally overlapping with the dates of one of the three continental series of the Ferrari Challenge.

These global initiatives provide Ferraristas with a platform to race in their single-seaters or XX Programmes laboratory cars on challenging tracks.

The Ferrari Challenge is divided into three continental series – Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.

The European 2019 season, however, heads to the Middle East and commences at the BIC before moving to Valencia, Spielberg, Le Mans, Nürburgring, Imola and the Finali Mondiali in Mugello.

The series is sanctioned by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and features four categories suited for different levels of driving, including Trofeo Pirelli, Trofeo Pirelli Am, Coppa Shell and Coppa Shell Am.

Antonello Coletta, head of Ferrari Attività Sportive GT, said: “We’re expecting another highly-competitive Ferrari Challenge season with hard-fought races and packed head-to-head duels, which contributes to the growing popularity of this series.

“The European series is broadcasted in more than 90 countries and continues to gain popularity amongst petrol-heads and Ferrari enthusiasts in the Middle East, making the BIC the perfect host for this season’s opening round”.

The series features the most powerful car in its history, the 488 Challenge. The car has been specially tailored for track thanks to 670hp generated by the V8 3.9-litre engine derived from the 488 GTB, winner of the International Engine of the Year Award in 2016.

Compared to the production 488 GTB engine, the Challenge’s powertrain, in its architecture is exactly the road car engine but features specific engine mapping, optimised for racing performance, and shorter gear ratios providing up to an 11.6 per cent increase in acceleration out of turns compared to its predecessor, the naturally-aspirated 458 Challenge EVO.

The most noticeable changes to the 488 Challenge compared to the production car are related to the aerodynamics. In order to achieve the technical objective of increasing the car’s aero efficiency while respecting the main design elements, the engineers worked closely with the Ferrari Styling Centre.

The front radiator layout was reworked, inverting the rake so that they are now inclined towards the rear. This solution improves the air flow over the radiators in racing conditions whilst, at the same time, reducing drag. The new layout required new vents at the bottom of the bumper ahead of the wheels.