Monza Friday Notebook

***The 55-car field for Sunday’s 3 Hours of Monza is the largest grid for a Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season-opener since 2016 when 57 cars lined up at the Italian circuit.

***The field lined up for a group photo on Saturday, with cars from the Fanatec GT2 European Series and the GT4 European Series also getting involved. The front row consisted of three new cars racing in each SRO Motorsports Group championship: the Ferrari 296 GT3, the Mercedes-AMG GT2 and the McLaren Artura GT4.

***Track action started on Thursday with the 60-minute Bronze driver test. Loris Hezemans set the pace with a time of 1:47.677 in the No. 12 Comtoyou Racing Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. Click here for the results.

***The No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo underwent an ‘additional performance test’ during the Bronze driver session at the request of the technical director. SRO Balance of Performance driver Nico Verdonck was behind the wheel.

***The Porsche 911 GT3 Rs at Monza are running with anti-lock braking and traction control after the manufacturer provided a fix to issues with its new car’s wheel speed measurement system. Porsche informed its customer teams of the problem on Wednesday, before working on a solution that was delivered to the cars at Monza on Thursday.

***The solution was described as an “ABS sensor update” by one team manager. Another said that the previous sensor which monitored the wheel speed would sometimes give erratic readings that made the car behave in an “unpredictable” way under braking. It appears that Porsche’s development of a solution ahead of the weekend prevented several teams from withdrawing.

***In addition to getting the update for Monza, Team Parker Racing received the fix for its Porsche that is running in the Michelin Le Mans Cup round at Barcelona this weekend.

***Kay van Berlo has replaced his brother Glenn in the No. 85 Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini due to a scheduling clash with the European Le Mans Series round at Barcelona. Glenn van Berlo drives for LMP3 team Eurointernational in ELMS.

***Kay van Berlo, who is a Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver, is gearing up for his GTWC Europe debut and his first GT3 appearance since 2018, which also came in a Lamborghini.

***CSA Racing recently finalized its Bronze Cup driving crew with the signing of Igor Walilko, who will share the French team’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II with Arthur Rougier and Erwin Creed. Walilko contested last year’s Sprint Cup campaign in an Akkodis ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

***The Gold Cup has been added to the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series for its third season, alongside Pro and Silver Cup. Every team in each class must nominate one of their drivers to take part in the 60-minute sim race on Saturday. A structure of 5-4-3-2-1 real-world teams’ points is available in each esports contest.

***The entry list for the Fanatec Esports GT Pro Series race was released on Friday. Among the participating drivers are Dries Vanthoor, Nicklas Nielsen, Jordan Pepper and Luca Stolz.

***Six teams are making their GTWC Europe debut this weekend: Comtoyou Racing, Pure Rxcing, CSA Racing, Theeba Motorsport, CLRT, Bullitt Racing, BMW Italia Ceccato Racing and Theeba Motorsport.

***Theeba has joined GTWC Europe after completing its maiden season in International GT Open last year. The U.K.-based squad runs under the Saudi Arabian flag of team owner and driver Reema Juffali. Theeba tested at Paul Ricard and Monza ahead of the season.

***In addition to its first GTWC Europe race as a Lamborghini team, Iron Lynx is making its Fanatec GT2 European Series debut at Monza with a Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 GT2. The Italian squad is running the father-son duo of Luciano and Donovan Privitelio who drove for FFF Racing Team in Super Trofeo Europe last year.

***Monza marks the first race for Pirelli’s updated version of the P Zero DHF tire that was introduced to GTWC Europe last year. The changes were made to ensure that the tire is better at absorbing mechanical stress, after several Lamborghinis and Audis had trouble with left-rear punctures last season.

***Lamborghini factory driver Sandy Mitchell told Sportscar365: “I’ve seen no issues so far, so touch wood it continues that way.”

***Team WRT has rolled out some new and updated liveries for its first GTWC Europe season as a BMW team, including a bright red Skechers design for the No. 32 Pro entry for Vanthoor, Charles Weerts and Sheldon van der Linde.

***Two of WRT’s FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 drivers, Robert Kubica and Sean Gelael, were spotted in the paddock on Friday. Gelael was part of the WRT lineup that finished third in January’s Hankook 24 Hours of Dubai in the team’s first race with the BMW M4 GT3.

***SRO has set the minimum refueling time for all cars this weekend at 42 seconds.

***The next few days are a busy period for AF Corse Ferrari driver Robert Shwartzman, who is making his GT racing debut on Sunday before taking part in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship rookie test in Berlin on Monday, driving for DS Penske.

***Euan Shand, the chairman of whisky company Black Bull, has acquired a stake in Barwell Motorsport to become a co-owner of the British team. Shand’s company has been sponsoring Barwell’s GT3 programs for a decade.

***Dinamic GT is operating from a new facility a few hundred yards away from Dinamic Motorsport’s workshop after the co-owners of the two organizations, Giuliano Bottazzi and Maurizio Lusuardi, split the business into separate GT3 and Carrera Cup teams.

***Bottazzi outlined why the two distinct teams have ‘Dinamic’ in their titles. “In motorsport, Dinamic has a [known] name,” he told Sportscar365. “We have an agreement with him [Lusuardi] to continue as Dinamic Motorsport and we continue as Dinamic GT. We decided that we have different ambitions and different ideas.”

***SRO donated the fines from last year’s GTWC Europe, Fanatec GT2 European Series and GT4 European Series seasons to a selection of charities including Saving Dora House, Fondation Alzheimer, Midlands Air Ambulance, Enfants Copilotes and Hyperacusis Research.

***Saturday’s track action consists of a 90-minute Free Practice session at 9 a.m. local (3 a.m. ET) followed by a Pre-Qualifying session of the same length at 1:40 p.m. (7:40 a.m. ET). Qualifying and the three-hour race take place on Sunday.