Monza Saturday Notebook

***Despite taking pole, Romain Dumas admitted Glickenhaus ‘clearly struggles’ with brake wear at Monza. The No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo emitted visible brake dust during practice at a track where it was forced to do a brake change last year.  “For sure everybody saw it smoking a lot from the rims, so we are definitely concerned about that,” Dumas told Sportscar 365.

***The Frenchman, who earned Glickenhaus’ second WEC pole, says the team is aiming to avoid doing a brake change during the race. “We need to manage the race with what we have.  Let’s see if it’s possible if we can take it easier at the start and see what is going on for the brakes.”

***Dumas claimed his first overall WEC pole since the Nürburgring round in 2015.

***Mikkel Jensen performed a system reset in his No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 when he stopped between the Lesmos in qualifying. A Peugeot spokesperson said that he returned the car to the pits, but at that stage the red flags were out and so Jensen was unable to post a lap time. The No. 93 Peugeot will start from the back of the entire grid.

***The 24 Hours of Le Mans class-winning No. 38 JOTA Oreca was also sent to the back of the grid due to an unsafe pit release into the path of Richard Mille Racing Team.

***Peugeot’s technical director Olivier Jansonnie confirmed that the manufacturer briefly tested with locking differentials in the early stages of its development program, before switching to open differentials which are now mandatory for hybrid LMH cars.

***The requirement for open differentials was announced 12 months ago. “In the early stages we were still learning, working on the regulations as it was in 2021,” said Jansonnie. He added: “We know there is more performance in the closed diff. If we had run in competition before Monza, we would definitely have run the closed diff.”

***Sarah Bovy made a piece of WEC history by becoming the first woman to take a category pole position. Bovy also gave the Iron Dames program its first series pole.

***Robin Frijns told of some struggles for the No. 31 WRT crew, which is aiming to bounce back from a Le Mans DNF. “It’s not really going as well as I hoped,” he told Sportscar365. “We have an issue with finding a good balance, that we can’t find so far. Last year we had the quickest car; I feel that’s not the case now.”

***Alpine holds the “target” of replicating its 27-lap race stints at Monza last year but feels that it can be closer to its Hypercar rivals, after being three laps off Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2021. “We have improved, and the global picture has improved,” team principal Philippe Sinault told Sportscar365. Alpine has received a stint energy increase and a power increase in the BoP, although the latter is relative to a smaller increase for Toyota and a larger one for Glickenhaus.

***Charles Milesi parked the Richard Mille Oreca at the first chicane during Free Practice 2 due to a gearbox issue, specifically a faulty rotary actuator, according to a team spokesperson.

***Saturday marked the 90th anniversary of the famous prancing horse emblem being used on Scuderia Ferrari cars. To mark the occasion, the factory GTE-Pro Ferrari 488 GTE Evos are sporting the original logo design that first appeared on two Alfa Romeo 8C 2300s at the 24 Hours of Spa in 1932.

***Algarve Pro Racing’s Steven Thomas told Sportscar365 that the old-school nature of the Monza circuit reminds him of Sebring International Raceway, despite their different characteristics. “You come out of a very fast turn one, you go through a weird turn five and then there is a big braking zone into a hairpin,” he said. “Here it’s a chicane and you’ve got to be willing to brake late to make time and brake on the inside of somebody to make a pass.”

***AF Corse changed the intercooler on its No. 51 Ferrari after Free Practice 2. Speaking to WEC pit lane reporter Louise Beckett, James Calado said this was done to “see if we could reduce some temperature, because basically it’s overheating.” The team then found a leak in the new intercooler and returned to the original one before hitting the track.

***Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi have moved to within one point of second-placed Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen in the GTE world championship standings courtesy of an extra point for pole.

***The No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 suffered fuel pressure issues in FP3 with Estre at the wheel. A Porsche spokesperson told Sportscar365 that Estre switched on the spare fuel pump and completed the session without any further issues for qualifying.

***Monza marks the last-ever GTE-Pro race in Europe, with the class recently confirmed to be ending after the current season. In the WEC, Ferrari has won the most European GTE-Pro races (16) followed by Porsche (10), Aston Martin (5), Ford (2) and Chevrolet (1).

***No support or accompanying series are in action at Monza. This last occurred at last season’s 6 Hours of Bahrain.

***Ferrari has released official footage of its LMH car running at Fiorano, including members of its factory GT driver lineup attending the shakedown.

***Nicklas Nielsen told Sportscar365 that he felt immediately comfortable at the wheel of Ferrari’s new prototype. “I’m happy with how the car is inside, how you see everything from the wheel out, and the positioning,” he said. “We didn’t put the car together from nothing, but they did a really good job to put it together in the way they did.”

***Alex Lynn described the rollout of Cadillac’s LMDh on Friday as the culmination of a ‘long buildup’. “We’ve had the chassis in the workshop for a long time and they’ve just been putting it together piece by piece,” he told Sportscar365. “It’s a very beautiful piece of equipment, so we’re all very excited to get in it.”

***Lynn didn’t manage to set a valid lap time in qualifying, meaning that his No. 23 United Autosports Oreca will start from the back row of the grid.

***The arrival of Peugeot ensures the largest top-category grid for the WEC since the 4 Hours of Silverstone in 2019, when six cars took part in LMP1. It is also the largest field for Hypercar since the class was introduced last year.

***Peugeot is set to retain its current driver lineup and combinations for the 6 Hours of Fuji and the 8 Hours of Bahrain, according to Stellantis motorsport director Jean-Marc Finot. “That’s the schedule,” he told Sportscar365. “Everything can happen but for the time being that is what is scheduled.”

***Both Peugeot 9X8s running at Monza are brand-new. It is understood that the French manufacturer now has five cars in its stable: a crash test car, a homologation car, a test car and the two competition models.

***A shakedown of the racing vehicles was conducted at Magny-Cours last week.

***Goodyear was issued a €30,000 ($30,546 USD) fine for not declaring its list of LMP2 tires ahead of the event. €5,000 of the fine needs to be paid immediately, while the remaining €25,000 is suspended provided that Goodyear does not repeat the offense.

***LMH constructors Peugeot, Toyota and Glickenhaus are all running with Michelin’s hot weather-focused and medium compound tires at Monza, while Alpine has the soft hot and cold options.

***The 6 Hours of Monza is due to start at 12 p.m. CEST (6 a.m. ET). MotorTrend is showing the first and last 90 minutes live on U.S. television, and in full online. Click here for worldwide broadcast options.

Davey Euwema contributed to this report