Analysis

The Planetlemans Monza preview

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Only 3 weeks after the opening round at barcelona it’s round 2 for the LMS at the extremely fast Autodromo Nazionale di Monza a few miles northeast of Milano. As observed already last year this will be the quickest race of the season, Minassian and Gené managing to go the full 1000 km in just over 5 hours in 2007.

The Peugeots appear therefore as marginal favorites over Audi for Sunday’s race given what was seen at Barcelona and their solid, stunning pace at high-speed sections. The team from Ingolstadt on the other side cannot be happy after their first LMS confrontation with the French lion. We were not used to mechanical woes on the R10 but those have become dangerously frequent in 2008, Sebring and Barcelona the most clear examples.

Peugeot is also not trouble-free even when their focus on the Le Mans 24 Hours has them feverishly working on reliability. Additionally, Monza will be very hard on the engines with the long straights asking constantly for lots of horsepower deployed on the track and the associated wear on the power plant.

After a very strong debut, the Lola-Aston Martin of Charouz Racing will certainly be a top attraction at the Italian circuit, speed is the strength of both car and drivers so we can expect another good display with more luck than last year. The rest of the LMP1 field will be probably a bit behind but the Creation opening stint at Barcelona showed them in strength and almost at the same pace as the Lola-Aston.

The British-Japanese team will have 2 cars at Monza with very strong line-ups but on their same league will be Pescarolo and Oreca, the latter also asserting they have been working hard evolving the Courage chassis and ready to advance some places on the scoreboard. Another one to watch will be the Epsilon-Euskadi if the weight distribution issues pestering them at the Circuit de catalunya have been solved.

In LMP2 the Porsche vs Lola duel can turn into a very interesting one. The Porsche teams had the winning hand at Barcelona, van Merksteijn in particular clearly dominant through the initial weekend at Catalonia. However, the other two Porsches put good performances and Lammers even scored fastest lap during his stint. Furthermore, the Speedy Lola was a sensational addition to the class and will be going for the top as well challenging the Porsches all the way.

We should also expect RML to recover and Embassy to show a bit more on the track after hard work from both teams as a consequence of their very diverse issues on the first race.
Quifel ASM and the Zyteks will also be looking for a “brand new day” in Italy after a mediocre start of the season.

In GT1 it will be a very small field, Larbre choosing for the FFSA round for their Saleen, so it will be an Alphand Corvette vs Modena Aston duel with the IPS Lamborghini close behind, Olivier Beretta making his LMS debut on the French team.

The smallest class will be a classic Ferrari vs Porsche battle, Virgo has shown excellent pace thanks to their partnership with Dunlop and a top-notch line-up while the Porsches have been struggling a bit with setups particularly on the rear end. The qualities of the Porsche teams are however not in question and IMSA, Felbermayr and Farnbacher should be giving the F430GTs a run for their money.

Progress is also expected from Spyker after extensive test in the Netherlands, both the works and Speedy cars ready to show evolution at Monza. Last but not least the Farnbacher Ferrari will be another one to watch after a good opening at Barcelona.

A last word to mention some notable absences: Lavaggi is working hard on the adaptation of the AER engine to the LS01 and will skip this round to have the car at its best for Spa. As well the Cytosport-Charouz Lola won’t be there, same as the second Epsilo-Euskadi car. Last minute drops from Chamberlain and the JWA GT2 Vantage Aston have brought the field to 45 entries which will still be strong but show that those “season” entries are not always a given. Here’s hoping to a great race.