2022 [WEC] 6h of Monza

[erwin greven]

Monza Thursday Notebook
Sportscar365’s Thursday notebook from the FIA WEC paddock at Monza…
by Daniel Lloyd July 7, 2022

***This weekend marks the FIA World Endurance Championship’s second race at Monza. The Italian track hosted the 2017 Prologue test before staging a WEC round for the first time last year when it preceded the 24 Hours of Le Mans, rather than following it.

***Thursday’s timetable consisted of scrutineering and pit stop practice in a sweltering hot pit lane. After its garage doors were left closed on Wednesday, Peugeot was one of the first to go through scrutineering as its 9X8 prototypes were pushed down pit lane shortly before 9 a.m. The Peugeots have generated lots of interest in the paddock.

***Peugeot’s garages are situated between Team WRT and Team Project 1, approximately in the middle of the pit lane. Toyota Gazoo Racing is situated at pit exit.

***Alpine is competing in its usual blue livery at Monza, despite some confusion caused by a social media post that showed the No. 36 Alpine A480 Gibson in a green design. The social media edit was made for promotional purposes for the Italian race.

***Iron Lynx has returned to its GTE-Am driver lineups that started the season, after shuffling its roster for Le Mans. Giancarlo Fisichella and Matteo Cressoni return to the No. 60 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo which featured Alessandro Balzan and Raffaele Giammara for the 24-hour race. Bronze-rated Claudio Schiavoni has been in the No. 60 all season so far.

***In another lineup tweak, Patrick Lindsey returns to the No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 after Max Root substituted for his fellow American at Le Mans.

***The Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 that took GTE class honors in last weekend’s European Le Mans Series round was in the pit lane on Thursday. Christian Ried and Gianmaria Bruni, two-thirds of the winning crew, are one of a significant number of drivers competing in both events.

***Other GTE drivers that are doing back-to-back Monza races include Bruni’s GTE-Pro co-driver Richard Lietz, as well as Matteo Cressoni, Claudio Schiavoni, Marco Sorensen, Henrique Chaves, Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey.

***The number of prototype drivers present at both races is greater, consisting of Mikkel Jensen (who has gone from a Kessel Racing Ferrari to a Peugeot 9X8), Nicolas Lapierre, Paul-Loup Chatin, Lorenzo Colombo, Louis Deletraz, Phil Hanson, Ferdinand Habsburg, Mathias Beche, Tijmen van der Helm, James Allen, Gabriel Aubry, Francois Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera.

***In total, nine entrants have remained in Monza after the ELMS round: Prema, Algarve Pro Racing, United Autosports, Inter Europol Competition, AF Corse, Spirit of Race, Iron Lynx, Proton Competition, and TF Sport.

***Senior figures from Alpine have proposed to make the Hypercar BoP process easier to understand in the wake of multiple power adjustments for the Renault brand during the first half of the season. Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi told Sportscar365 in June: “There is something that needs to be done, to make it easier to read or apply. To be honest, it was a bit difficult for me to understand it. And I struggled to find someone to explain to me how it works.”

***Alpine Racing executive director Bruno Famin, who previously worked for Peugeot Sport and the FIA, suggested that the BoP could benefit from being ‘renewed’ but declined to comment on how this would be carried out, saying it is being discussed with the organizers: “I think we should all work together for a better system,” he said. “We have all seen the limit of the BoP system. With more and more manufacturers coming in the next year, it now becomes necessary to renew the system.”

***The FIA and ACO declined to comment on Alpine’s calls for changes to how the BoP is managed in Hypercar. There has been no indication at this stage that any significant changes will occur.

***As explained by the ACO in March, the different hybrid activation points for the Peugeot 9X8 and the Toyota GR010 Hybrid at Monza are linked to tire size. The Peugeot, which has an activation point of 150 km/h in both dry and wet conditions, is running on 13-inch Michelins all round, which is the layout Toyota had last year before it switched to 12.5-inch on the front and 14-inch on the rear in search of better tire management. Toyota has its usual 190 km/h hybrid activation point.

***Toyota Gazoo Racing expects that the Glickenhaus 007 Pipo will be the “fastest car” at Monza, according to the manufacturer’s WEC technical director Pascal Vasselon.

***The Glickenhaus has received a 13-kW power increase for Monza, taking the 6 Hours of Spa pole-sitting machine to 533 kW which is the highest maximum allowed power figure for an LMH car to date. “I think, race after race, Glickenhaus get more BoP corrections,” Vasselon said. “Here, clearly, I would expect the Glickenhaus to be the fastest car.”

***Vasselon added that Peugeot’s debut is ‘just what Toyota needs’. He said that “The only target is to bring competitors to the series. So we can only be very pleased.”

***JOTA crew members recently took part in a soapbox race to raise money for charity. The British team decorated a soapbox cart in its WEC colors and competed in partnership with a restaurant local to the English town of Tunbridge Wells, where the event took place on the last weekend of June.

***Team WRT has ruled itself out of discussions with Lamborghini about aligning with the Italian marque’s LMDh program. WRT has “never really been in contact” with Lamborghini about that project, according to team principal Vincent Vosse. “If you read the Lamborghini communication, it’s clear that it’s not a full-factory program and it needs to be financed. It cannot be in our case,” Vosse told Sportscar365.

***Vosse added that the Belgian squad, which is aiming to race in Hypercar after the Audi LMDh program fell through, needs to have a top-category deal secured by the end of this year. “In the next few weeks, something will be decided,” he said. “I have to, for the GT3 program… everything. Doing Hypercar is still the goal of the team.”

***Dallara plans to tackle the next generation of LMP2 in 2025 with a “gradual approach” to entry numbers, according to the Italian company’s CEO Andrea Pontremoli. “What we are looking for is to have a car, or some cars, running,” he said. “But we don’t want to have too many. We want to stay concentrated with one team that is competitive. Not to have too many cars running, because we want to learn first.”

***The first track action of the weekend takes place on Friday, with a 90-minute Free Practice 1 session starting at 3:30 p.m. CEST (9:30 a.m. ET).

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/mon ... otebook-4/

[erwin greven]

I place it here first. Later it will be placed in the Full race topics.

[erwin greven]

Formation lap started!!
pm for stream link

[Everso Biggyballies]

Formation lap started!!
pm for stream link

Thanks @erwin greven for the link watching now

[erwin greven]

Peugeot #93 has stopped. FCY.

and it runs again...

And stops 15 meters before pit entry...

[Everso Biggyballies]

Peugeot #93 has stopped. FCY.

and it runs again...

And stops 15 meters before pit entry...

So much for my wishes of luck! Great looking car and not just a 'me too' look is good to see..

[erwin greven]

yes. the car is quick and looks good. Daring philosophy too. WEC races are pretty good too.

[erwin greven]

Heavy crash at the second chicane. FIA, do you need more evidence that the sausage curbs need to go????

[erwin greven]

Glickenhaus in the pits: turbo failure... and that while they were leading a big chunk of the race.

[Everso Biggyballies]

The Grandfather (Alpine) leads. Not by much but it leads.

One hour to go.

[Everso Biggyballies]

15 minutes to go and its still Alpine by 4 seconds.

[erwin greven]

ALPINE WINS AT MONZA!! (LMH)

Peugeot #94 finishes.

Iron Dames (GTE-Am) take 2nd and thus the first all female team podium!!

[erwin greven]

By far the best WEC race i have seen since the Silverstone race where Porsche and Audi battled for 6 hours. 2014 i think.