"It's about time!" Mario Andretti exclaimed. The legend among motor racing's living legends knows of which he speaks.
A full 50 years after the factory from Maranello made its last official start at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ferrari is back, returning to the same international endurance racing stage where its exotic prototype machinery from the 1960s and early-1970s often earned more success for the brand than anything it achieved in Formula One.
Dressed in Ferrari's traditional colors of red and yellow, the sleek new Ferrari 499Ps will chase a debut win on Friday as the globetrotting FIA World Endurance Championship opens its season with a 1,000-mile contest of speed and stamina at the famed Sebring circuit in Florida.