Monza Thursday Notebook

Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI

***The FIA World Endurance Championship has returned to Autodromo Nazionale Monza for the first time in three years, as a replacement round for the season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain due to continued geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It marks the WEC’s fourth race appearance at Monza, which appeared on the calendar from 2021-23 and also hosted the pre-season Prologue in 2017.

***The No. 7 Toyota entry of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez won on two of the three occasions, with the 2022 race having gone to the ORECA-chassied, Alpine-badged LMP1 car with Nico Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere at the wheel.

***With Toyota Racing having already clinched the Hypercar manufacturers’ world championship last time out in Barcelona, and only the Nos. 7 and 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrids in contention for the drivers’ championship, Toyota’s David Floury told reporters there will be no team orders between the two cars. The No. 8 entry of Brendan Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa hold a 17-point lead over teammates Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries.

***Floury said: “There will be no team orders. If five Hypercars were fighting for the championship against another car, or Car 7 against Ferrari, for example, and you have a car out of contention, then for sure you will try to maximize the chances to secure the championship. But in this situation where we have secured the manufacturers’ title and we have both cars fighting for the title, as a team we don’t want to interfere. We want to provide fair conditions to the two cars.”

***Conway was presented with a special painting titled “Thank You Mike” that was signed by all Toyota Racing personnel, on his final outing in professional competition this weekend. The 43-year-old Briton announced his retirement from top-flight racing last month.

***This weekend therefore also marks the debut of the LMGT3 class at “The Temple of Speed” which coincides with the final appearance of the current generation Goodyear Racing Eagle slick and wet tires. The tire manufacturer will rollout with new specification tires that are made up of 66 percent renewable material next year in both the WEC and European Le Mans Series.

***LMGT3 teams have already begun testing the new tires following last month’s 6 Hours of Barcelona according to Goodyear Endurance program manager Stephen Bickley.

***He added: “Monza presents an interesting challenge to round out a competitive WEC season, particularly with the cooler conditions we expect at this time of year. Getting tires up to temperature quickly will be important, but the fast warmup characteristics of our Goodyear Racing Eagle Medium should give drivers the confidence they need from the start of each stint.”

***Michelin, meanwhile, has brought both the Soft and Medium compounds of the Pilot Sport Endurance line of tires for the Hypercar class, with the Soft being the tire of choice this weekend according to its endurance program manager Pierre Alves, who is predicting possible triple-stints depending on temperatures and track conditions.

***Alves said: “Monza has a rather unique profile, combining extremely high speeds with relatively low energy demands on the tires. The front tires are subjected to significant loads under braking, where they need to deliver excellent stability and precision, while the rear tires must provide outstanding traction during acceleration.”

***Another change since WEC’s last appearance at Monza was the circuit’s resurfacing, which occurred in 2024, which is predicted to deliver significantly quicker lap times, potentially as much as 2-2.5 seconds.

***Peugeot returns to the site of the debut race for the 9X8, which came in 2022 and was followed up by the car’s first podium in 2023 with Mikkel Jensen, Paul di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne. A heavily updated LMH-based car is expected to be rolled out for next year due to a new clause in the technical regulations that allows the FIA and ACO to permit additional Evo jokers for a manufacturer that demonstrates a significant performance deficit. The French brand used up the remaining of its available five jokers last year.

***There are a number of other milestones this weekend as well, with Richard Lietz set to make his 100th WEC start, just one race after Sebastien Buemi became the first driver to reach the achievement. Porsche, meanwhile, will record an unprecedented 500th combined start across all 911 GT variants since the championship’s launch in 2012. This figure does not include any top-class starts.

***Monza will also mark the 80th WEC outing for Corvette, which claimed its first series class victory, outside of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2022 in the GTE-Pro class with Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy. One year later, the Pratt Miller Motorsports-run operation clinched the GTE-Am title with Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone.

***Both TF Sport-entered Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs are in LMGT3 title contention this weekend, with the No. 33 entry of Jonny Edgar effectively holding a 18-point lead over the second-placed No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo trio of Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Yasser Shahin. Racing Team Turkey by TF’s Charlie Eastwood, Salih Yoluc and Peter Dempsey are four further points behind in third.

***The No. 33 Corvette of Edgar, Catsburg and Keating would score the title for Edgar and the Tom Ferrier-led squad if they finish fifth or better, no matter where the Manthey car ends up. If the No. 91 Porsche finishes second, the Corvette would need to only finish tenth or higher.

***Corvette Racing program manager Andrea Hidalgo said: “It’s exciting to have two Corvettes out of the four cars that are still in contention for the championship. Both of the crews and their Corvettes have been strong and consistent all season and are operating at a high level. We are excited to see how it all comes together.”

***The other LMGT3 crew still in with a mathematical chance is the No. 69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 Evo of Dan Harper, Parker Thompson and Anthony McIntosh, which is sporting its eighth and final different livery of the season, with the trio 26 points behind Edgar — the maximum possible points score this weekend which would also require pole position and the No. 33 Corvette to finish outside of the points and several other factors for the two other title contenders.

***Jack Aitken is on baby watch, with his wife, Alex, past-due on her delivery date for their first child. “Her due date was on Tuesday but the doctors said it’s not coming soon, soon, so hopefully next week,” Aitken told Sportscar365.

***Aitken, who won this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title, said he has plans in place to get back home to the UK if necessary. “I’ve talked about it with these guys and they’re all very sympathetic and supportive,” he said. “If I need to make a dash for it, we have plans to work around that. I will try to be there, I want to be there, and hopefully it’s not necessary and I can race the weekend as normal.”

***Both Dani Juncadella and Jules Gounon have become Red Bull Athletes, following an announcement at last weekend’s Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix, which both drivers attended in support of Max Verstappen, who they co-drove with in this year’s Nürburgring 24.

***While Juncadella is confirmed to be back with Genesis Magma Racing in an unchanged lineup, Gounon revealed to Sportscar365 that he’s set to shift his full focus back to GT3 competition in his role as a Mercedes-AMG factory driver, following Alpine’s exit from the world championship.

***The French manufacturer held a photo shoot with the Renault Alpine A442B, which won the 1978 Le Mans 24 Hours, alongside its two A424 LMDh-based prototypes that will be making its final starts in WEC competition this weekend with Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg, Gounon and Victor Martins.

***ACO President Pierre Fillon, WEC CEO Frederic Lequien, along with Monza track president Giuseppe Redaelli, and Peugeot drivers Theo Pourchaire and Nick Cassidy took part in a tree-planting ceremony this afternoon at Viale Mirabello. The planting was a joint initiative between WEC, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitment, and the circuit.

***Ben Keating, who is making his final start this weekend in a full season sports car racing campaign, has ruled out pulling double-duty in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, stating that it’s “not reasonable” due to IMSA’s adjusted drive time requirements that were introduced this year, which effectively requires a driver to complete a minimum of 4.5 hours in each car they’re entered.

***Keating, who is expected to land a drive in the race in LMP2, told Sportscar365: “That would mean I’d be in cars for ten hours [in the race]. I love it, I’m just not that mad at it anymore. I’d rather go hang out with my friends than to punish myself all night.”

***1980 Formula 1 champion Alan Jones passed away on Thursday at the age of 80. The Australian made sporadic starts in the World Sportscar Championship and two outings at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, having finished sixth in 1984 in a Kremer Racing Porsche 956B alongside Vern Schuppan and Jean-Pierre Jarier.

***WEC track action begins on Friday with Free Practice sessions from 10:30-12 p.m. CET (4:30-6 a.m. ET) and 2:30-4 p.m. CET (8:30-10 a.m. ET).

Source: Sports Car 365