Performance boosted by Michelin's endurance racing tyre range in Italy

One of the world’s oldest racing venues, and situated just a short drive north of Milan in northern Italy, Monza played host to Round 5 of the 2023 FIA WEC and the third six-hour clash of the season. It was an understandably emotional occasion, too, for the big turnout of local fans who were thrilled to be able to admire the Le Mans-winning Ferrari 499P in action for the first time on home soil.

Sunday afternoon’s race got under way at 12:30pm sharp in stifling heat, with Michelin Motorsport’s technicians reporting air and track temperatures of 34°C and 51°C respectively. The conditions were consequently extremely tough not only for the drivers and their machines, but also for their tyres which needed to deliver a competitive combination of performance, consistency and longevity despite the scorching weather.

The 5.793-kilometre Autodromo Nazionale di Monza is both technically challenging and very fast. Indeed, four times per lap, the Hypercars get up to around 300kph which clearly put the tyres – especially the two rears – to a huge test. The circuit’s famous Curva Parabolica also subjects the covers to very high loads.

“It’s the rear-left that suffers the most at Monza,” notes Michelin Motorsport Director Matthieu Bonardel. “As a consequence, we saw some of the teams – notably amongst the Hypercar runners – begin the race with their car fitted with three medium-compound tyres and one hard, whereas others went for different fitments right and left, and others still chose either the medium or the hard for four wheels. This big spread of variants suggests that the two compound-specs we took to Monza were capable of addressing the needs of our partners in both the Hypercar and LMGTE classes. Our medium is an especially versatile option that delivers fast warm-up performance, while our hard is a tyre that the teams know they can depend on in these conditions. Our partners were therefore able to take advantage of these different qualities as the race unfolded. We knew that the drivers were going to double-stint, but we were a little surprised when some stayed out on the same set of tyres for a third stint at one of the hottest moments of the afternoon. In today’s heat and at the sort of speeds you get at Monza, that’s some achievement!”

Michelin’s teams in both the Hypercar and LMGTE Am classes could choose not only between the French firm’s medium- and hard-compound endurance racing slicks, but also wet-weather alternatives, although these were not needed over the weekend. Its partners readily praised the coherence and complementarity of the options nominated for the Italian round where the choice of compounds played a big role in the final result.

The 2023 6 Hours of Monza was won by the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José-Maria Lopez, ahead of the #50 Ferrari 499P (Ferrari AF Corse, Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen) and the #93 Peugeot 9X8 (Peugeot TotalEnergies) in the hands of Paul Di Resta/Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Éric Vergne.

The LMGTE Am win went to the #77 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Julien Andlauer, Mikkel Pedersen and Christian Ried. The Dempsey-Proton Racing trio was joined on the podium by Iron Lynx’s Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Alessio Picariello (#60 Porsche 911 RSR-19) and Michael Wainwright/Riccardo Pera/Benjamin Barker (#86 GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19).

Fourth place in the category for the #33 Corvette sufficed for Corvette Racing’s Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone and Nicky Catsburg to sew up this season’s LMGTE Am crown.

The next round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship will take teams to Japan for the 6 Hours of Fuji on September 8-10.