Toyota hit back at Ferrari after its Le Mans defeat, while Corvette wrapped up the GTE Am title with two races to spare. Here are 10 things we learned from last weekend's WEC round at Monza:
No Ferrari technical representative or drivers were made available to speak to media after the race“Second is the first loser,” joked a senior engineering figure at Ferrari after Antonio Fuoco had lost out to Toyota driver Kamui Kobayashi by 0.017s in qualifying. The smiles had disappeared after the Italian and his team-mates had trailed home second to the Japanese manufacturer in the Monza 6 Hours.
The rule makers have insisted the pre-Le Mans tweaks were a one-off and the latest system will be fully adhered to for the rest of the season. Given Ferrari’s criticism — however veiled — the question has to be whether that will be the case. Few manufacturers have as much political clout in motor racing as Ferrari and it hasn’t been averse to flexing its muscles in the world of endurance racing.
There was a similarity to the Spa 6 Hours at the end of April here. Toyota didn’t have the same advantage it enjoyed at the opening two WEC rounds at Sebring and Portimao, but it got its execution spot on. So much so that the race was more or less done and dusted by the halfway point. A 10th-place finish for Cadillac doesn’t look very good on paper, but it would be wrong to say that the solo Ganassi V-Series.R wasn’t a competitive proposition at Monza. Far from it.
Any kind of finish would have been a decent result for Proton, but it was not to be. The car lost drive in early in the fifth hour when the clutch didn’t engage, probably reckoned Porsche the result of an issue with a sensor.Isotta Fraschini gave its Tipo 6 Competizione Hypercar a first public demonstration at MonzaSeeing is believing.
“Unfortunately it was not enough and we could see we will not make it to the end of the race,” he said.
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