Imola Thursday Notebook

***Thirty-six cars have been entered for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Imola, which marks the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, with the entry list featuring only very minor changes compared to the Qatar season opener.

***Akkodis ASP Team has brought in Esteban Masson to replace the injured Ben Barnicoat aboard the No. 78 Lexus RC F GT3. Masson teams up with Arnold Robin and Finn Gehrsitz.

***Elsewhere, Heart of Racing Team has slimmed down the lineups for its pair of Aston Martin Valkyries to only feature the full season duos of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble and Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen. As previously reported by Sportscar365, Porsche Penske Motorsport has gone in the opposite direction, with third drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell still part of the team’s lineup in Italy as part of the preparation for June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***Jaminet and Campbell arrived in Italy on Wednesday evening straight from a two-day test at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, which also saw Lexus’ yet-to-be-announced GT3 car turn laps alongside current IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship entries.

***Gamble, Jaminet and Campbell were also amongst a number of drivers to have been in action at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach last weekend, with back-to-back events taking place amidst a busy period for global sports car racing. Both Dries and Laurens Vanthoor, as well as Earl Bamber and Sheldon van der Linde were also competing in California.

***Meanwhile, an even greater number of drivers come fresh off the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season opener in Paul Ricard with that list including Sorensen, Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon, Antonio Fuoco, Alessandro Pier Guidi, Alessio Rovera, Mattia Drudi, Augusto Farfus, Kelvin van der Linde, Davide Rigon, Matteo Cairoli, Maxime Martin, Ben Tuck, Darren Leung, Richard Lietz and Sean Gelael.

***This weekend’s event marks the first time that WEC has made use of the additional pit garages that were constructed as part of the agreement for Imola’s four-year contract extension that will ensure the venue’s place on the calendar until 2028. The extra garages, which are located at pit entry, are used by Proton Competition this weekend for the German’s squads pair of Ford Mustang GT3s and its customer Porsche 963.

***Toyota Gazoo Racing technical director David Floury downplayed their GR010 Hybrid’s accident in a test at Spa-Francorchamps earlier this month, which occurred in Pouhon. “We had a small off in the first day but the car was fixed for day two,” he said. Floury said it was a different chassis to the two Hypercar entries they have here at Imola.

***Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Valkyrie also had a sizable accident at the Spa test, but on the second day of the running, which curtailed its test. Sportscar365 understands the driver was unhurt in what was a test chassis, thus not impacting preparations for this weekend as well.

***In a change for this year’s race, Hypercar teams are utilizing Michelin’s Soft and Medium compound tires instead of the Medium and Hard, which were on offer in last year’s mixed-condition race. Michelin’s endurance racing program manager Pierre Alves believes the change could make triple stinting possible again.

***Alves explained: “For this edition, we believe that while the Medium compound remains highly suitable, it will be even more effective when paired with the Soft… Given that the Imola track layout does not naturally lend itself to rapid tire warm-up, we believe this combination will enable our partners to reach optimal performance from the very first laps and maintain consistency throughout the six-hour race.

***Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Floury believes that teams may put Michelin’s Soft tire into action this weekend, although it depends on weather conditions, with a mix of on/off rain forecasted.

***He said: “It could be but it will really depend on the conditions. On the Medium, for sure, last year, in slick conditions it was a bit tricky. So if we have mixed conditions, the Soft will have a window. If it’s clearing up with some bright spells, it’s going to be less decisive.”

***Floury said he doesn’t expect the Toyota GR010 Hybrid’s performance to be any better this weekend than it was in Qatar, which saw it struggle but managed to finish fifth and sixth in the race. “The performance working point is even worse relative to the opposition,” he said. “Generally the gap to Ferrari has not closed and everyone else has improved relative to us. I don’t believe in miracles. We will do our best to score the maximum points we can.”

***Sportscar365 understands that the current Hypercar technical regulations could be extended for an additional three seasons, through the end of the 2032, largely to accommodate series’ newcomers Genesis, Ford and McLaren, which will only enter the world championship in 2026 and 2027, respectively.

***The extension of the current regs would go against a proposal from Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach, who was calling for an all-new ruleset, loosely based on a combination of LMDh and LMH, for 2030.

***It’s unclear where the ACO’s proposed hydrogen class, which have been delayed until 2028, would fit into this timeline, with rumors indicating an even further delay amid no firm regulations having yet to be published.

***Porsche, Alpine, Peugeot and Cadillac are understood to have tested at Imola last month to prepare for this weekend’s event, with Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA driver Alex Lynn explaining that mixed conditions during the two-day test proved valuable.

***Lynn said: “During the test, I got some dry running in, got some wet running in, which is helpful for both the driver and team. The test was positive; we learned a lot. I think it’s a circuit that we can definitely improve on from last year, and I’m quite confident we have improved a lot overall since then.”

***JOTA was present at last weekend’s Goodwood Members’ Meeting to celebrate 25 years since the team’s founding. The lineup of cars it brought to the event included its 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 class winners from 2014, 2017 and 2022, as well as Porsche 963 and Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh machinery. Notably, both Lynn and Will Stevens completed demonstration laps during the event aboard the Cadillac, with Sportscar365 understanding that a new unofficial Goodwood lap record was set.

***All four of Team WRT’s BMWs have been fitted with stickers commemorating Gerhard Reuter, who recently passed away. He served as the technical lead for BMW M Motorsport’s marketing activation team prior to his death.

***Similarly to last year, a drivers’ presentation event, including autograph session, took place in the Imola city center on Thursday afternoon and evening, with both the drivers’ and team managers’ briefings also held in the same location.

***Friday will see the start of official on-track action, with Free Practice kicking off at 11:15 a.m. CEST (5:15 a.m EST), with FP2 to follow at 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. EST).

John Dagys and Jamie Klein contributed to this report