2013 Ferrari 458 Italia GTE Works
One of only 11 Works-specification Ferrari 458 Italia GTEs delivered new to AF Corse, the de-facto factory Ferrari GT team
A two-time entrant in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and a seven-time podium finisher in the FIA World Endurance Championship
Pole-sitter in the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans – the highest ever GTE Am-class qualifying result
Instrumental in Ferrari’s FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers in 2013
Raced by Works Ferrari GT drivers Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Villander, Kamui Kobayashi and Olivier Beretta
Ferrari Classiche certified and comprehensively rebuilt by Michelotto and AF Corse in 2018–2019, the work totalling 126,000 euros
Single private ownership with a Ferrari GT Am driver and only ever prepared, maintained and raced by AF Corse
Highly eligible for Ferrari’s exclusive Club Competizione GT series, the Masters Endurance Legends championship, and the popular Challenge & GT Days
The final – and thus most fondly remembered – naturally-aspirated Ferrari GT racing car
The Ferrari 458 Italia GTE
The hard numbers speak for themselves when it comes to the Ferrari 458 Italia GTE. Over the course of seven years, the model clinched a staggering 104 victories. And there wasn’t a peak of the endurance racing world this Ferrari didn’t peak.
The World Endurance Championship. The European Le Mans Series. The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. The International GT Open. The American Le Mans Series. The Tudor United Sports Car Championship. And the Asian Le Mans Series. The 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 12 Hours of Sebring. And Petit Le Mans. The Ferrari 458 Italia GTE won them all. And more often than not on multiple occasions.
To say the preceding Ferrari F430 GT/C was a tough act to follow would be one hell of an understatement. But if anybody could build a worthy successor, it was Michelotto. The 308 GTB Group IV, GTO Evoluzione, F40 LM and F333SP. The common denominator in these hallowed competition Ferraris? They were all built by Michelotto Automobili in Padova.
Given the calibre of the aforementioned Prancing Horses, it’s surprising that Michelotto is, in the grand scheme of things, a largely lesser-known entity. But for those who do understand the extent to which the outfit is woven into the fabric of Ferrari’s motorsport success, said mystery is all part of the magic.
In recent years, Michelotto has – in collaboration with the factory’s Corse Clienti department – exclusively built Ferrari’s eight-cylinder contenders in motorsport’s GT categories. And the most successful was this: the 458 Italia GTE.
“The hard numbers speak for themselves when it comes to the Ferrari 458 Italia GTE. The model clinched a staggering 104 victories. And there wasn’t a peak of the endurance racing world it didn’t peak.”
For anybody who ever stood beside a racetrack and had the shrill, soul-stirring eight-cylinder song of the 458 Italia GTE etched into their memories perpetually, this car will forever be remembered as the final – and thus most fondly-remembered – naturally-aspirated Ferrari GT racer. To say the 488 GTE that replaced it didn’t hold an audible candle is an understatement and a half.
Michelotto built just 52 458 Italia GTEs, of which 11 were assigned to AF Corse, the de-facto Works Ferrari GT team. Assigned with a traditional factory Ferrari four-digit competition car number, chassis 2874 – the example offered here – is one of those Works-specification cars.
Chassis number 2874
The sixth of 11 458 Italia GTEs built by Michelotto specifically for the de-facto Works Ferrari GT outfit AF Corse, chassis number 2874 was delivered to the team’s Piacenza headquarters in March of 2013. Boasting the raft of new aerodynamic upgrades for 2013, it was one of two cars earmarked to contest all eight rounds of the World Endurance Championship in the premier GTE Pro class.
Allocated the race number 71, chassis 2874 was assigned to drivers Kamui Kobayashi and Toni Vilander. A veteran of 75 Formula 1 Grands Prix and the outright winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021, Kobayashi is, quite rightly, among Japan’s most famous motorsport exports. Vilander, meanwhile, has become synonymous with Ferrari’s GT efforts, with two Le Mans GTE Pro class victories, two FIA GT Championship titles and one FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers under his belt.
This Ferrari’s maiden outing came in the season-opening 6 Hours of Silverstone where, against the might of the factory-backed Aston Martins and Porsches, Kobayashi and Vilander reiterated the fierce pace of the 458 Italia GTE, finishing a fine second in class and stepping on the GTE Pro podium for the first time that season.
Round two, the 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps, was a similarly accomplished affair for the number 71 car. In what was a textbook case of helping to bolster the overall AF Corse effort, Kobayashi and Vilander finished third in class after a valiant job of defending the sister Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni, which took the class victory.
Next up was the big one: the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which was celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2013. Strengthening the driver line-up was Olivier Beretta, a man who knew the Circuit de la Sarthe more intimately than most, having scored an astonishing six class victories in the French endurance classic. A staggering 245,000 spectators descended on Le Mans for the race’s 81st running. For the number 71 Ferrari, the dependability of the experienced driver line-up came to the fore, resulting in a strong fifth-place finish in GTE Pro, ahead of the sister AF Corse car.
After a well-deserved summer break, the AF Corse squadron upped sticks and crossed the Atlantic for the World Endurance Championship’s fly-away races. The 6 Hours of São Paulo at Interlagos in Brazil was first, followed by the 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas in Texas. In the latter, Kobayashi and Vilander clinched their third podium of the season – a special one for the Italian team, with the sister car one spot ahead in second.
Round seven and eight, Shanghai and Fuji, garnered two fifth-position finishes, adding valuable points to the board at a crucial stage of the year. And in the season finale in Bahrain, for which Vilander was swapped with Formula 1 race-winner Giancarlo Fisichella, this 458 Italia GTE clinched another podium, bringing its overall tally for the year to four.
“Vilander was swapped with Formula 1 race-winner Giancarlo Fisichella in Bahrain, a race in which this Ferrari clinched another podium, bringing its overall tally for 2013 to four.”
Suffice to say, 2013 was an incredibly strong year for AF Corse and, in turn, Ferrari. In the World Endurance Championship, the Prancing Horse was awarded the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers, while AF Corse won the FIA Endurance Trophy for LM GTE Pro Teams. Neither of these incredible title victories would not have been possible if it weren’t for the impressive results tallied by chassis number 2874.
This Ferrari was not permitted to rest on its laurels for long. Another season of the World Endurance Championship beckoned for the car at the beginning of 2014, this time in the fiercely-competitive GTE Am class. The Italian sports-car veteran Michele Rugolo and the Australian Stephen Wyatt were assigned to chassis 2874, with either the Italian three-time FIA GT Championship title-winner Andrea Bertolini or the British GP2 Series runner-up Sam Bird completing the trio.
Now entered with the number 81, this 458 Italia GTE contested all but one round of the season, scoring further podiums at Silverstone, Bahrain and São Paulo. And once again, the car played an instrumental part in Ferrari winning the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers. Perhaps the most remarkable moment of chassis 2874’s season, however, occurred in qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June – the Ferrari’s second entry in the world’s most famous endurance motor race.
Having only strayed away from single-seaters once before in his career and in his debut outing at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Sam Bird showed pace which stunned the opposition right up and down the grid.
At the conclusion of qualifying, Bird had recorded a lap time of 3min54.6sec, putting the number 81 Ferrari on pole in the GTE Am class by over a second and, even more remarkably, second in the overall GT field. An extraordinary albeit unexpected 29th position on the grid was – and remains – the highest starting position ever assumed by a GTE Am entrant.
There was one final race at endurance racing’s highest level for this Ferrari to contest and that was the 53rd Rolex 24 at Daytona in January of 2015. One of two 458 Italia GTEs entered in the GTLM category by AF Corse, chassis 2874 was assigned arguably its most accomplished driver line-up in Toni Vilander, Gianmaria Bruni, Emmanuel Collard and François Perrodo.
A four-time Le Mans class victor and two-time FIA World Endurance Championship winner, the Italian Gianmaria Bruni has forged a strong reputation intrinsically linked to the Prancing Horse. Frenchman Emmanuel Collard, meanwhile, has also won two FIA World Endurance Championships and contested every single 24 Hours of Le Mans race since 1995, picking up two class victories along the way. While the foursome put on a deft display worthy of their accolades in qualifying, lining up second in class, they were forced to retire after 211 laps.
Its top-flight competitive duties over, chassis 2874 was acquired by a then-current AF Corse GTE Am driver in the summer of 2015. The car was subsequently campaigned in the hotly contested 2015 and 2016 Blancpain GT Sports Club, where it was entered, as it always has been, by AF Corse and driven by its owner.
Rather pleasingly, this 458 Italia GTE has remained in the care of its first private owner ever since. In 2018, he returned the car to Michelotto who, in conjunction with AF Corse, comprehensively rebuilt it – an exhaustive two-year project which totalled 126,000 euros.
“Chassis 2874 has been returned to the exact AF Corse livery in which it finished fifth at Le Mans and, crucially, received its full red-book Ferrari Classiche certification.”
At this time chassis 2874 was returned to the exact GTE Pro Works Ferrari AF Corse livery in which it finished fifth in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2013. Crucially, the car has received its full red-book Ferrari Classiche certification, verifying its provenance. Upon completion of the fastidious rebuild, the owner was proudly invited to exhibit the car at Ferrari’s season-closing Finali Mondiali event at Monza.
At this point it’s important to touch on this GT racer’s eligibility in today’s historic motorsport world. Among the most profound shifts in the collector-car market in recent years has been the explosion of interest in modern-era endurance racing cars. Needless to say, this Ferrari 458 Italia GTE – with its World Endurance Championship-winning and 24 Hours of Le Mans credentials – is a fantastic and historically-significant car with which to join this burgeoning movement.
In addition to the prospering Masters Endurance Legends series, which holds events both in Europe and across the pond in the United States of America, Ferrari’s own Club Competizione GT, part of its highly-exclusive Corse Clienti programme, is another area in which the joys of this 458 Italia GTE could be enjoyed. It would be thoroughly tempting to return chassis 2874 to the history-steeped banking of the Daytona International Speedway for the HSR Classic Daytona 24 Hour.
Furthermore, in recent years the Challenge & GT Days at the Red Bull Ring, which are held specifically for modern-era endurance-racing Ferraris and Maseratis, has proven to be a hit among owners, who enjoy the event’s private, relaxed and non-competitive nature. In fact, this car made an appearance in the 2019 edition of this event with the current owner.
Today, chassis 2874 is presented in exceptional and ready-to-run condition, with just 1,085km on its engine and gearbox. The car is accompanied by its Ferrari Classiche binder, a selection of period AF Corse trophies including the 2013 FIA Endurance Trophy for LM GTE Pro Teams, an original AF Corse Le Mans pit crew radio set and a period race suit worn by Toni Vilander.
A purebred and beautifully restored Michelotto-built Ferrari GT racer with successful Works AF Corse history on the world stage and in the most prestigious endurance races of them all, this 458 Italia GTE awaits a discerning collector and/or historic racer looking to join a fast-growing movement which shows no sign of dwindling.