What the Drivers said at Monza on Friday

Jean-Eric Vergne, Peugeot TotalEnergies, No.93 Peugeot 9X8 - Hypercar

“The good thing is that the car makes a lot of people talk about it, and secondly it looks really nice. I love the look of the car. I think many people here do as well.

“Then in terms of you know, pure aerodynamics it's exactly the same as having a rear wing, with this BOP (Balance of Performance) there was a certain amount of downforce that we can have.

“The engineers thought that they could have the same amount of downforce in the floor and not having the rear wing, so in terms of driving the car, when I first drove it, it's exactly as if there was a rear wing like, it produces the same downforce and handles the same, the handling is very good, very good in high speed corners.”

Antonio Fuoco, AF Corse, No 52 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo – LMGTE Pro

“I think for us it is a special weekend because it's our home race. So, it's always special to be here with the team and we know the fans well, so we will try to do our best.

“We've had some close fights in the past races at Le Mans and Spa with the Porsche and Corvette so I will expect some fights here at Monza during this weekend. We already will do our best and we will try to achieve our goals.”

Lorenzo Colombo, Prema Orlen Team, No.9 Oreca Gibson - LMP2

“It's home race on home soil, even for the team as well as they're based two hours away from here. So, we really feel the home motivation and we need to see what we can achieve.

“We already did a race last week in the ELMS but the rules are different there and me and Louis (Deletraz), we come fresh from last week’s race and Robert (Kubica) for sure will adapt quickly to the car.

“For sure there is a lot of motivation coming out from Le Mans especially because we were second and it was the hardest race of the season and was new for us as a team. For me, it was my first time and I managed to drive in all the conditions, so thank you to the engineers and for the strategy that gave me the opportunity to drive in every condition of the race.

“Coming here for Monza, we just plan to build a strong car from FP1 straightaway this afternoon and focus on the main target which will be a podium.”

Matteo Cairoli, Team Project 1, No.46 Porsche 911 RSR-19

“Practice is definitely very important to understand the car, of course, trying to develop the setup in the best way possible.

“But talking about this year, let's say it’s a bit frustrating because we were quick, but it doesn't count anything unfortunately (in practice).

“We figured out a lot of bad luck, I mean, some hard momentum for the team and for myself, of course. But we also did some mistakes which we need to understand as quickly as possible and try to get the result we deserve back in Monza.”