From the Editor’s Desk – July 2023 – The Magic of Monza. FIA WEC 6hrs Review

If you MUST miss the 100th anniversary of the Le Mans 24hrs to celebrate one of your best mate’s weddings, it turns out there is an equal substitute, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. A short train ride out from central Milan in northern Italy, Monza Circuit is set inside, and surrounded by, the beautiful (and enormous) royal park, surrounded by woodlands, mountains and thankfully, public water fountains.

Turns out, the closer you are to the equator, and the further away you are from the jet stream, the hotter the world is, who knew!?

But we did not go on a plane over France and the Alps to comment on the geography and weather. We went for race cars. Thankfully, Monza, and frankly, Italy, has loads of them. The 101 year old circuit, known as the Temple of Speed due to its old-school, long straight, fast average speed characteristics have attracted racing series from around the world, and for the FIA WEC, it played host to round 5 of the 7-round 2023 season, with Ferrari looking for their homecoming victory after winning Le Mans, Toyota looking for revenge, and the rest of the field looking to cause an upset.

The 13-car field in Hypercar saw another new entry to the top class with the Proton Competition team taking acquisition of their Porsche 963, making it four cars for the German marque, solidifying their title of the most popular Hypercar so far. Adding to the pairs of Toyotas, Ferraris and Peugeots, and the singular Cadillac, Glickenhaus and ByKolles Vanwall. This change in the top class was combined with a new edition of Balance of Performance changes, as much as a 15KW reduction for the Caddy, but more importantly, 12KW and 5KW reductions for Ferrari and Toyota.

This led to the closest qualifying session in WEC history with 2.7 seconds from the pole-sitting Toyota and the 13th placed, non-hybrid ByKolles, only 17 thousandths of a second between Toyota and Ferrari on the front row, and eight cars within a second of one another in the top class. The LMP2 and GTE qualifying sessions were equally close, with only 1.1 seconds between the entire 11-car LMP2 field.

This is where the first big shout-out needs to be said, despite falling back in the race, Sarah Bovy, racing for Iron Dames, absolutely crushed her “amateur” competition. In both qualifying (beating second place by almost half a second) and her first two stints where she massively gapped the other GT cars, even despite the safety car. Sarah has been a star in 2023, and if she gets the call-up when Iron Dames go to Hypercar with the Lamborghini in 2024, I fully expect that she will arrive with both an upgraded rating (currently bronze) and be fully capable of pushing the competition.

As the GT class is not my focus in the WEC these days, to sum up the race, the Porsche 1, 2, 3 in the race was a surprise, the Championship win for Corvette was well deserved as they have been near flawless, the 777 Aston Martin being murdered by Sébastien Buemi early on into the Ascari chicane was booed by the Italian crowd (and me), and Ferrari are clearly switched off with the 488 GTE programme and looking to the new 296 GT3 which was on display in the paddock. Even less of my focus, in LMP2, I was delighted to see Pietro Fittipaldi win the race for Jota, and he deserves a Hypercar drive next year.

Right, back onto Hypercar. Speaking of the paddock, the WEC’s fan zone was very exciting with cars being shown by BMW, Alpine, and a small Italian privateer, Isotta, all of whom (along with Lamborghini who revealed their car a few days later) are going to be on the grid next year. The Isotta was particularly exciting as the team not only brought their car to the circuit for the fans to see, but also managed a pair of demonstration runs on-track and the car both looks and sounds fantastic. With them being the first privateer Hypercar team to have a hybrid on their car, it will be fascinating to see how the car fares against its manufacturer competition. The Alpine looks great, the BMW does not, by the way, but, regardless, it will be great to have them all on the grid, which could be as high as 20 Hypercars in 2024!

After 4 Italian Pizzas so far, all of which were delicious, it was race day, in mid-30-degree heat from the moment we left the hotel, it was straight into the main straight grandstand, one block away from the official Ferrari fan club. Seats taken, it was time for the pomp and ceremony the WEC loves to put on before the race. The cheers began early when a tractor went past the stands, but a big highlight was a display from the Italian Navy with a pair of massive helicopters flying up and down the main straight. The crowd became properly loud when the Hypercar Ferraris exited the pits to join the grid, and again when the cars pulled away for the formation laps. After a sighting lap, the cars formed up two-by-two into Parabolica and the 6 Hours of Monza began.

Turn 1, Ferrari sent the crowd into hysterics as the number 50 dived down the outside of the pole-sitting Toyota. A lock-up and cut across the chicane denied the opportunity of Ferrari leading the first lap back at home, indeed it wouldn’t be until the second hour until they finally took the lead as Toyota, and then, shockingly, Peugeot lead the race. A year on from the debut of the 9x8, Monza was the first time that Peugeot showed true, dry weather, front running pace. The distinctive car, without a conventional rear wing, generating its core downforce from the venturi diffuser, was incredible through the high-speed Ascari chicane and it was great to see the project finally showing promise, but, issues with braking and gearbox problems show the French squad still have a lot of work to do.

When Peugeot wasn’t shocking the field, the race was a story of Ferrari number 50 and Toyota number 7 fighting tooth and nail to stay ahead of each other with multiple close-quarter fights on-track and both pit crews working hard in the pit lane, through a 6 hour race, the gap between the two cars never exceeded 20 seconds with most of the race having the cars in sight of one another.

What became very clear was that the Italian crowd were very in-tune with the happenings and even the strategies of Ferrari, they all clapped after every Ferrari pit stop, they cheered when Ferrari went aggressive with tyre strategy, and they went berserk whenever Antonio Giovinazzi overtook any car in any class. The crowd also stayed put with a far smaller percentage of them leaving the grandstand during the race than I have ever typically seen at both Silverstone WEC races and Le Mans. To say the Tifosi are a passionate bunch is possibly the biggest understatement I have ever written.

The main pack was a typical WEC affair, the Porsches, Cadillac, Peugeot, the recovering 51 Ferrari, and even Glickenhaus were all fighting one another throughout the race with different strategies and different areas of the track where each car had an advantage over another. It created a great spectacle for fans paying attention and not focussing only on the Ferrari-Toyota battle for P1. Porsche continued to have minor issues which hampered the 963 which included a stop on track for Jota.

Watching the cars through Parabolica on Saturday morning, it is very telling to see where the Porsche is set up to be more on-edge and more “race car” like with its characteristics, compared to the Caddy which had a planted front end or the Glickenhaus which was being thrown into corners with the drivers hoping it grips up. Porsche is clearly the most aggressively set-up car we have seen so far from the LMDh GTP-derived machines. Its characteristics are probably the most LMP1 style of all the Hypercars and I suspect next year’s upgrades will bring the Porsche 963 more into the fight with Ferrari and Toyota, the sheer volume of Porsches being made also gives Porsche more data points to progress their car faster than the likes of Cadillac, so it will be interesting to see.

After 6 hours of racing and despite the best efforts of AF Corsa, Toyota eventually crossed the line, winning by 16.5 seconds from Ferrari, the lead Peugeot came home in 3rd a further minute behind, Porsche, Ferrari Toyota, Porsche, Glickenhaus, Porsche and Cadillac rounded out the top 10.

Now, you must all be surprised to have got 1,500 words in and I’ve barely mentioned my favourite team, ByKolles, who had their best race of not only 2023, but their best race in the last 5 years. Despite blowing an engine on Friday, the team fought back, as they always do, handily beat the LMP2 field in qualifying, and then didn’t have a single pitstop where they needed to pull the number 4 back into the garage for a repair. They were clearly conserving the car through the race with pace only as good as the LMP2 field through hours 3 to 5, and an incredible final stint which pushed the Vanwall to an hour and fifteen minutes on one tank of fuel, likely due to the slightly fragile looking and sounding clutch which slowed them up in the pit stops.

A couple of bad safety car wave-arounds for the LMP2 field meant they finished 20th overall, being pipped to the line by a tenth of a second by the second Peugeot, but as their possibly biggest fan, I am incredibly proud of the team and delighted to finally see, in person, ByKolles finish a trouble-free race for the first time since they began making their own cars almost a decade ago. Here’s to the team progressing again at Fuji and Bahrain to finish off the season!

So, Monza, Italy, Hypercar, in one word, fantastico! The fifth pizza, half bottle of Limoncello, and a big plate of the smoothest ice cream I have ever had on the final night after the race was a perfect send-off. Less said about the 36-degree heat, massively delayed flight back to the UK on the Monday, and the ludicrous prices of Milan airport’s “duty-free” lounge the better. But as far as an experience, all I can say to anyone who is into racing, GO TO THE WEC! Next year will see the circus go to Imola for the Italian round which will be a completely different experience. If the tighter circuit can produce half the excitement Monza did, it will have done well, but, if nothing else, as even more of a home circuit for Ferrari, with another year of development on the 499P, the home crowd will be incredible.

As for the 2023 Championship. Toyota leave Monza 1-2 in the standings, but Ferrari has lit the afterburners to close back after Le Mans and Monza, the number 8 car will be looking for a flawless race and some bad luck for the others in Fuji to try and tie up the title early. Toyota are still the undoubted favourites, but to have Ferrari still in touching distance is almost a miracle for a new car against the might of the most developed car in the GR010 against the biggest car manufacturer in the world in Toyota, a fantastic proposition for the sport’s future, and, for me, I only need ByKolles to get up there to have all three of my favourite teams fighting for the win… Maybe one day.

The WEC is back in as strong a position as it was back at the peak of LMP1 days in 2015, as someone who has watched every race since 2008, it makes me very happy to see the series back with a considerably stronger base, with more diversity than it has had in years. The final words I can say is “Give us More, and Bring Back Silverstone!!!”