Monza Friday Notebook

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

***Lap times in Friday’s second Free Practice for the FIA World Endurance Championship season-ending 6 Hours of Monza tumbled compared to FP1, as teams put on slicks for the first time so far this weekend. Robert Kubica’s FP2 pace-setting 1:38.143 lap time in the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P was nearly eight seconds quicker than Charles Milesi’s benchmark from the morning.

***While both of sessions were held in wet conditions, and FP3 on Saturday is also expected to be wet, forecasts suggest qualifying and the race will be held in the dry. Ferrari’s Alessandro Pier Guidi therefore says drivers will be heading into qualifying “blind.”

***He said: “Most probably two of us will go in the race without any single lap in the dry. It will be quite unknown. It’s a bit of a gamble in terms of setup because you didn’t work a lot — sometimes you’re a bit more lucky and you have the perfect base, sometimes you have to work more. It will be quite challenging for sure.”

***Fellow factory Ferrari racer Antonio Fuoco is relishing that challenge, saying: “You just need to send it with no references and it’s the same for everyone.”

***Fuoco will also be racing a Ferrari 499P in the new Hypercar car class of the Asian Le Mans Series this winter and says the Monza weekend will be useful preparation. “For the next couple of months I will have quite similar conditions!” he added. “In the Asian LMS we will have the tire heaters so it will be a bit easier in the first two or three laps.”

***The No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, which is the closest title contender to Jonny Edgar and the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in LMGT3, completed only a handful of laps in Free Practice 1 after diagnosing and solving a drivetrain-related issue. The car set the ninth quickest time in FP2 with Riccardo Pera.

***The recently announced rules change for 2027, which will see LMGT3 teams’ trophy points calculated by the combination of entries that carry the same competitor license, has been clarified. Teams will still be able to retain commercial partners in individual entry names, but they must come after the name as written on the competitor license.

***This means a team name such as ‘Racing Team Turkey by TF’ would have to be adjusted to ‘TF Sport with Racing Team Turkey’ or similar, with ‘The Bend Manthey’ changing to ‘Manthey The Bend’ as two current examples.

***Toyota Racing WEC team principal Kamui Kobayashi paid tribute to Mike Conway in Friday’s pre-event press conference ahead of the Briton’s retirement from top-flight racing after the Monza contest. The pair have shared a car for 75 races over the past 12 seasons.

***Kobayashi described Conway as a “gentleman” and someone he has “huge respect for” adding: “At some points he had difficult moments, but he was always calm and would come back very strongly.” Kobayashi said Conway’s greatest achievement was the way he gained respect from everyone in the team and is hopeful of sharing a car in a “local race” for fun in the future.

***Prior to Conway’s retirement, there is one final WEC race that will determine which of the Toyota crews takes the drivers’ world championship. But Ryo Hirakawa, who leads the standings aboard the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid by 17 points over Conway, Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries’s sister car is expecting a tough Monza contest for the manufacturer, which has won four of the seven races to date.

***Hirakawa said: “It’s not really our strengths because many tracks have some bumps and curb usage, which is our strengths. Whereas this track is very smooth, flat and almost no curb usage so it feels like the others can gain some performance by this new surface and smooth track.”

***Richard Lietz, who is set to make his 100th WEC start this weekend, revealed that his contract with Porsche is up at the end of this year, having signed a two-year deal in 2024, with an option for a one-year extension, which was taken up this year, at the beginning of the LMGT3 era.

***The Austrian told Sportscar365: “We need to talk. I want to continue if the program is good. They want to continue. The team has to want to continue. At the end, it doesn’t look too bad, but we will see. Nothing is signed yet but I feel confident. OK, at one point it will end. I hope not now.”

***New Peugeot 2027 signing Robert Shwartzman revealed that he will have a double program next year, with the 2025 Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter set to be confirmed by Lola to race in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. It would mark the third different Peugeot WEC driver to also race in FE next year, joining Nick Cassidy and Jean-Eric Vergne.

***It’s currently unclear how Stellantis will handle the single WEC/FE clash next year, between the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo and Shanghai double-header in July, where it will need at least four drivers between its pair of 9X8s.

***Shwartzman drove Peugeot’s heavily updated 2027-spec 9X8, which is awaiting final approval from the FIA and ACO for special Evo joker dispensation, for the first time at Portimao in September, as part of an endurance test. “When I tried the Peugeot car in Portimao that was one year and 15 days that I hadn’t been in a race car driving,” he said.

***Seb Priaulx and Logan Sargeant, who both make their final scheduled starts in the Ford Mustang GT3 EVO before shifting full focus to Ford Racing’s Hypercar program, were part of the LMDh-based car’s most recent test, which came at Monza on Oct. 27-30. They were joined by Mike Rockenfeller and Nick Yelloly.

***Priaulx said: “[It was a] really positive test with the Ford Hypercar, which was also a great opportunity to reacquaint myself with the circuit ahead of the WEC season finale. With its long straights and high-speed corners, Monza should play more to the Ford Mustang GT3’s strengths than some of the circuits we’ve raced at recently.”

***The next major outing for the Hypercar effort will be its first endurance test at Motorland Aragon in two weeks’ time. The car, meanwhile, will be formally revealed on Nov. 26, along with additional details of the program.

***Sargeant will be one of 12 Ford Racing drivers to take part the manufacturer’s inaugural ‘Proud To Serve: Veterans Day Classic’ at Daytona International Speedway on Nov. 11. Sargeant will join NASCAR Cup Series competitor Ryan Preece to represent the U.S. Navy, with six two-car teams of Ford Mustang Dark Horse Rs representing each U.S. military branch.

***Ben Tuck is not concerned about having his FIA driver rating being upgraded from Silver to Gold for next year during the “dreaded time of year for us Silvers.” Tuck said he “should be fine” and is close to finalizing a 2027 program. “I’m confident it shouldn’t hold me back too much,” he told Sportscar365. “Couple of years ago I would’ve been worried but actually I feel like now is the right time — I feel like I’m ready to make that step and try to be a Gold somewhere.”

***Tuck, who pilots the No. 77 Proton Competition-entered Mustang alongside Priaulx and Eric Powell, has only taken a best result of fifth in the WEC this year, in the first season for the updated machine.

***He added: “We’re somewhere near the bottom of the championship but it doesn’t feel like we deserve to be there,” he added. “We haven’t really done anything majorly wrong, it’s just the entire grid has sped up as well as the Mustang, so that’s been the difficult part of it. It’s that cleaning up the final bit of execution in the race and we will be fine.”

***McLaren Endurance Racing executive director James Barclay confirmed that the sixth and final driver for its Hypercar program will be announced “pretty imminent.” Sportscar365 believes it could come as soon as Monday, with Malthe Jakobsen widely understood to be officially named but was unable to earlier due to conditions in his Peugeot contract.

***Barclay said all six drivers will take part in the next scheduled test, at Portimao later this month, with one additional test in Europe planned by the end of the year. He said the British manufacturer is leaving options open for early 2027 running, having previously indicated plans to test in the Middle East, where the geopolitical situation continues to remain fluid.

***Saturday’s track action will begin with Free Practice 3 at 10:30 a.m. CET (4:30 a.m. ET) followed by qualifying and Hyperpole that gets underway at 2:20 p.m. CET (8:20 a.m. ET). Both will be streamed live on FIAWEC+.

Stephen Lickorish contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John