6 Hours of Monza returned to the 2023 FIA WEC Championship calendar as its fifth round. Local fans might be boosted with the presence of the new Ferrari factory prototype, freshly winning the previous race, the most famous of all, the 24 hours of Le Mans. All that after returning after 50 years. Even a friend of mine, who was going to visit the Monza race after being fascinated by the Spa 6 hour, reported that he could not get a ticket, so stayed at home despite being nearly fully packed.
During Friday's and Saturday's traditional free practice sessions some grandstands were already rather full, while for the qualifying it was already crowded like in the race of the previous seasons. The weather is rather hot and except a short night shower between Friday and Saturday, it is also pretty sunny. Simply a weather more suitable for a summer seaside holiday.
Of the originally 37 entered cars we lost one Aston Martin, the car number 98. With the departure of Paul Dalla Lana prior to the Spa race, this time the team opted to run in IMSA this weekend as both championships clash. We have some new liveries, actually taken over from Le Mans, such as Peugeots, Aston Martin no.25 or Porsche GTE no.56. While some other cars returned to their original colour schemes, such ss factory Porsche. One completely new car also entered. It was much anticipated official long season entrant, Proton Competition Porsche 963 no.99. They actually replaced their no.88 early season entry, which means that we are two cars down compared to Spa (38 starters) – the other missing is Cadillac no.3, which was Le Mans-only entry and used Spa as a testing race.
Hypercar class is thus the largest group with 13 entries, compared to 12 GTEs and 11 LMP2s. Probably for the first time in the modern WEC history, which dates to 2012. The practice and qualifying sessions were very close and thus with rather different results. But generally Toyota and Ferrari are likely to continue their slight domination despite both being hit by the pre-Le Mans, unplanned BOP changes. Another notice that in free practice sessions the private Porsches were often quicker that their factory-entered counterparts, but this changed in qualifying.
Friday Practices
The first practice was a bit of reminiscence of the last year’s race when Glickenhaus dominated the first half of the race. In this practice it appeared at the front for some time and even with the 90-minute session finished, the Glickenhaus was still classified 5th behind fastest Ferrari, followed by JOTA and factory Porsches and a Toyota.
On the other side, the second practice was dominated by Toyota (1st and 3rd), leaving the second spot for Ferrari, with lone Cadillac, factory and the new Proton Porsche followed. Proton Porsche 963 had an excelled ride this session, only to be soon eliminated from the session, completing least number of laps, among Hypercars.
Saturday final Practice and a Qualifying
The final practice had a surprising winner. It was a Peugeot, taking first and third spots. And it was also the quickest session, with the times continuously improved from 1:37s in session 1, through 1:36s in session 2, to 1:35s in this final free session. Note to say that during our pre-covid visit to the track in 2019, for ELMS, the fastest LMP2 prototype ran at high 1:34s.
In this session the Peugeot were closely followed by Ferraris (2nd and 4th), Cadillac and two private entered Porsches. Toyotas and factory Porsches were further back, mixed even with Glickenhaus and Vanwall.
The qualifying, despite not that quick as somebody might have expected, was back to normal, with Toyota and Ferrari fighting for the Pole Position. But it was closer than ever, with top ten cars in about 1.1 seconds. Slower Ferrari got its best time deleted due to track limits, so was moved from 4th to 6th. Of the rest, this time Toyota was 0.017s quicker then the Ferrari, which will share the first row. Second Toyota will start from the second row, closely followed by better of the Peugeots. The third row will belong to Cadillac next to the penalized Ferrari.
Porsches were outpaced this time. Best of them being factory no.5 at 8th position followed by JOTA and another factory no.6 car.
Now we await tomorrow’s race with a hope of increased battles for podium, which were usually ruined by early safety cars, or lack of performance of Toyota’s competitors. With no rain forecasted, let’s hope Monza to be another Race of the Year, as it was name in 2022. Especially with the Italian round moving to Imola next year, Monza has its final chance to prove how good track it is. Stay tuned for tomorrow.
Race
It has been extremely hot and sunny as the race started. Now twenty minutes after the race finish 6:50 PM, it is still very hot 33 °C. Despite that the crowds were huge. We have never seen such full grandstands during our visits of sports car races here so far. But it definitely was not sold out. For example the grand stand at the end of the main straight was closed in its higher parts, perhaps to have all present spectators in TV or so.
The start already brought drama, with the Ferrari that started 6th trying possibly to much to gain some position spinning and standing in reverse direction. Hopefully, not on the track but solid part of the first chicane, it was not hit but when recovering, Corvette avoiding the chicane trying run it straight on and finding the recovering Ferrari in front of the Corvette. Fortunately, all cars avoiding the chicane recovered without being hit by anyone and all continued.
Toyota was at the front ahead of Ferrari and Peugeot, with all other cars sorted in a close chain for many laps, only Vanwall getting further back. The recovering Ferrari was within LMP2s by the second lap and started catching the Vanwall since lap three. Peugeots, now with very advantageous BOP were really quick and after several laps Peugeot overtook the Ferrari for second and even the leading Toyota had nothing sure at this time. The other Peugeot was 4th, until missing the first chicane and losing to Porsche. The second Toyota no.8 was at the back, not sure what happened. But with one lap down early in the race, it was never in contention for the podium.
Unfortunately, in middle of the first hour Aston Martin no.777 crashed into the barrier, which not only brought the first of about three Safety Cars and it damaged the race. Some cars pitted at this time but it was too early. Since then, we had once again, just like at Spa the Hypercar class split into two groups, with a completely different strategy. Always when one group pitted the other took the lead. So we can say that when the regular pit stops started, the secondary group with early pit stop during the Safety Car took to the front. Factory Porsche ahead of Hertz Porsche, originally delayed Ferrari and Cadillac – with Proton Porsche 963 a bit behind but completing this group – formed mainly of cars that were originally at the back of the Hypercar field.
Some update, during writing of the report: The Ferrari was hit by Toyota no.8, which got a 10-second penalty at the first pit-stop. Later the same Toyota sent the Aston Martin no.777 to the wall, which lead to serving another penalty – 60-second stop and go. So that is to explain the early race happenings, not that obvious from the observation at the track.
Then the race was rather influenced with additional Safety Cars – something that should be completely removed from the World Championship races – more over with the pass-by rules, making it almost terrible. In any case all that chaos led to situation that we had all five manufacturers in lead during the race. Later the race developed into a battle between Toyota no.7 and Ferrari no.502, with the Peugeot no.93 following a half lap down. The cars with irregular pit stop strategy, both factory Porsches, Ferrari no.51, mixed with Glickenhaus and Toyota no.8 in position 4th and above. Sometimes they were in the lead lap, sometime a lap down but with no signs to take on the first three cars.
In the last hour, it looked that the Ferrari no.50 could catch up the leading Toyota but after getting close to some 5 seconds, the last pit stops and tyre change on both car decided. Now the Toyota was quicker. While Ferrari no.50 set provisional Fastest Lap before the last pit stops, after them the Toyota on new tyres was capable of running a second per lap quicker than before. And it basically decided the race at the top 3. Toyota no.7 won 6 Hours of Monza 2023, Ferrari no.50 finished second and Peugeot no.93 went for the team first podium finish. It was something the team hoped for after Le Mans and was welcome end of the race for the team, after loosing many laps with the car no.94 in the garage.
The battle for 4th was more interesting. Factory Porsche no.5 was running 4th for a long time but Ferrari no.51 was not far away. But in the end, it was the penalized Toyota no.8 that surprisingly caught and overtook the Ferrari. And very soon after, the Porsche no.5 became also a Toyota victim. It motivated the Ferrari that was running behind the Porsche for many laps and finally moved ahead. Then the differences between the three cars started increasing, settling actually the positions up.
Second factory Porsche no.6 finished next; Glickenhaus was 8th after some of its best performances of the season. Hertz Team Porsche and Cadillac completed the first ten places. Oreca Cup entries of the LMP2 class followed. JOTA team moved to the front after leading Alpine no.36 pitted at the end of the race. Positions 19th and 20th went two Vanwall and Peugeot no.94, both delayed in the garage and not able to overtake most the LMP2 entries.
GTE class saw a Porsche dominance this time: Proton Racing no.77 23rd, Iron Lynx 24th and GR Racing Porsche 25th. Usually favourites, Corvette and Iron Dames Porsche finished behind them, this time outside of the podium.
Generally, it was a great race but without Safety Cars, it would definitely be much better. Artificial feel remains. The performance of the cars was close, but the unexpected influence of SC periods and quick pit stop strategy changes did not help it. Next year we should meet again in Italy, but not in Monza but in Imola. Hopefully, with more manufacturers entering the race would be closed than just having three cars in the lead lap while potentially we could have more than twice that many – with no SC interventions and manipulations.
