There are a few changes to the entry list for the 6 hours FIA World Endurance Championship round at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza this weekend.
36 cars are entered, with some dropping out and others coming in.
Northwest AMR #98, who has run with Heart of Racing Team colors since Spa Francorchamps, are not running this weekend, since they have a clash with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, so they have chosen that over the FIA WEC race.
Proton Competition has switched cars and categories. They have been running a Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the GTE Am category until now. The team has finally received their new Porsche 963 Hypercar by now, so they will move into that category instead, as previously announced, while the #88 is parked for now. Harry Tincknell, Gianmaria Bruni, and Neel Jani will be racing the new 963, with car number #99.
The clash with IMSA affects other driver combinations too. United Autosports #22 and #23 are once again calling up Ben Hanley and Giedo van der Garde, to replace Filipe Albuquerque and Tom Blomqvist in the two respective cars.
Project 1 – AO Porsche #56 is also affected by the IMSA weekend, so the home track hero Matteo Caironi is joined by Efrin Castro and Guilherme Moura de Oliveira. The latter raced for the team in Portimao as well, because there was another clash with IMSA. This will be the first FIA WEC race for Castro, but he has plenty of Porsche experience from Porsche Carrera Cup North America amongst others, where he is a front-runner. It is however a different type of 911, which is run in Cup racing, compared to the GTE version.
Photo: JJ Media
The driver rotation at Floyd Vanwall Racing Team #4 continues. Tom Dillmann has left the team after Le Mans, and gets replaced by Brazilian racer Joao Paulo de Olivera, who will race alongside Esteban Guerrieri and Tristan Vautier. The Brazilian has raced in Japan for many years, in both Super GT and Super Formula, where he has been a front runner. So it will be interesting to see how he compares to his teammates in the Vanwall Vandervell 680.
Juan Manuel Correa misses another weekend in the LMP2 category, since FIA Formula 2 is racing at Silverstone this weekend. So local driver Andrea Caldarelli steps back into Prema Racing #9, alongside Filip Ugran and Bent Viscaal.
There are changes at Prema Racing #63 too, with Mirko Bortolotti missing out on his home race, since he will be racing DTM at Norisring. He will be replaced by Mathias Beche, who has plenty of LMP2 experience, which definitely won’t hamper the car.
The 6 Hours of Monza will be run this Sunday, with the race starting at 12.30 CET.
