Monza Friday Notebook

***Porsche Penske Motorsport changed the hybrid system of its No. 6 car after encountering an issue during FP1, according to factory LMDh director Urs Kuratle who told Sportscar365: “We would love to have more investigation, but as soon as you rip it all apart, you maybe erase some of the traces and root causes. We lose a lot of time in race preparation.”

***The No. 6 Porsche also took a combined 15 minutes’ worth of stop-and-hold penalties in FP2. Ten minutes were dished out after Laurens Vanthoor was deemed to have forced D’station Racing’s Aston Martin Vantage GTE off the track at the second Lesmo during FP1, while the remaining five were for an unsafe pit release.

***It was a tough day for the Porsche factory squad which saw its No. 5 car experience a cut-out in FP1, believed to be caused by a malfunction with the engine kill switch.

***Roger Penske was at Monza on Friday, rather than Canadian Tire Motorsport Park as initially thought. The Penske Corporation founder and chairman said during a roundtable with reporters that Hypercar “really ties in” with his group’s automotive interests: “We can touch base with our clients and our customers see this. We’ll have 600 people here from our dealerships in this market. We had almost 1,000 people at Spa.”

***Penske is keen for the profile of FIA World Endurance Championship drivers to be raised in the current period of heightened manufacturer participation and spectator interest. “What we have to do is make the drivers that we have, stars,” he suggested. “Get behind our drivers and create more value of who they are and what they give to the sport.”

***Friday’s spectator attendance was anecdotally high for a day that featured Free Practice sessions, with many Ferrari AF Corse fans gathering around the team’s hospitality unit in the open paddock.

***AF Corse technical manager Luca Masse confirmed that Ferrari has not retired its Le Mans-winning 499P chassis from competition after its victory, pressing it into action again at Monza. “We finished the race, we did a rebuild and full check and small preparation test in Fiorano just to do some other checks and then straight away in Monza,” Masse said.

***Additionally, the No. 51 will be on static display at next week’s Goodwood Festival of Speed in the U.K.

***Michelin’s hard compound slick tire has returned to WEC action due to the hot temperatures at Monza this weekend. The supplier has also brought its medium (formerly soft-hot) specification to Monza, repeating the selection it made for the 6 Hours of Portimao. The hard tires have red stickers and the mediums have yellow ones.

***Michelin’s endurance racing program manager Pierre Alves said: “With average lap speeds of more than 220 km/h (136.7 mph) and repeated peaks of nearly 330 km/h (205 mph), the Hypercar class cars consistently generate loads of 600 kg on their tires, peaking at 850 kg on the rears. This makes it a particularly difficult challenge, and our teams will be mobilized and very attentive to this data.”

***LMP2 tire supplier Goodyear is celebrating its 125th anniversary at Monza and has brought classic 1898-style branding to the event, including on the demarcation between the pit boxes and the fast lane.

***Ben Keating is hoping to improve on a poor record at Monza, having encountered trouble in both previous outings. The Texan failed to finish last year after a spectacular crash for co-driver Henrique Chaves, while his 2021 victory bid was derailed by a front-left tire delamination that cost 12 laps.

***Keating said: “This place doesn’t owe me anything, but we’re going to go back at it again and see if we can change our luck.”

***After a strong start to the season that included wins at Sebring, Portimao and Le Mans, Keating and his Corvette Racing co-drivers Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg can secure the GTE-Am title this weekend. If Keating takes pole on Saturday, a podium will be enough.

***TF Sport boss Tom Ferrier would “love” to have Keating back with the team for its move to Corvette next year. Keating has previously stated that he doesn’t intend to race in LMGT3 and he is known to prefer GTE cars that lack traction control and ABS. “It would be lovely,” said Ferrier. “But it’s up to him.”

***Ryo Hirakawa used short shifting after his No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid ingested a piece of Kevlar at Le Mans, according to Toyota’s WEC technical director Pascal Vasselon. The measure was taken to prevent the engine from overheating.

***Vasselon also stated that it was definitely a squirrel that the No. 8 car struck later in the race, causing a shorter delay. “We are sure now that it’s a squirrel because we’ve found the onboard,” he said. “It was not a rabbit. The leading edge was really smashed.”

***WEC race director Eduardo Freitas chaired a discussion among selected drivers about their feedback on how Le Mans was run. “It’s great that they’re doing that to have a bridge between the race director and driver,” said Cadillac’s Richard Westbrook, who was involved.

***Iron Dames and Prema welcomed 22 local girls aged between six and 15 to the paddock on Friday for an educational day based on the two teams’ joint Positive Impact School Program. The group was given a tour of the WEC event including visits to different teams.

***The planned absence of the No. 98 NorthWest AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE from Monza has resulted in the British manufacturer’s smallest GTE-Am representation since the final round of the 2020 season. It is also the lowest number of Astons on a WEC grid in 11 years, after one car raced in 2012.

***Aston Martin has “multiple options with existing partners” for its potential LMGT3 involvement next season, according to the manufacturer’s head of partner racing who indicated that the teams will likely come from the current crop outside of TF Sport, which is switching to the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

***Huw Tasker added that Aston Martin Racing is keen to be represented by teams that have a long-standing affinity with the brand. “The ACO is rewarding loyalty and we have a similar mindset,” he told Sportscar365.

***The Vanwall Vandervell 680 Gibson suffered an engine failure during Free Practice 2, which caused it to only register 13 laps. The ByKolles-run LMH car retired at Le Mans for the same reason.

***Reigning Super GT300 champion Joao Paulo de Oliveira, who has replaced Tom Dillmann in the Vanwall, is set for his WEC debut and his first race in Europe since the 2019 Nürburgring 24.

***Free Practice 3 is due to start at 10:40 a.m. CEST (4:45 a.m. EDT) on Saturday with live coverage available on YouTube. Qualifying gets underway at 2:40 p.m. (8:40 a.m. EDT).

Davey Euwema contributed to this report