Race Highlights
The turnaround. Here is the part the results sheet will never show you: by the time the races came around, the team had turned it completely. Car #5 was one of the fastest cars on track in race trim. After a winter of adaptation and a Round 1 spent discovering the Supra, the pace everyone believed in was finally there, in public, on the most unforgiving circuit in Europe.
Race 1. Then Monza did what Monza does. A stone, flicked up off the racing line, found the front-left radiator. Temperatures climbed, the alarms came, and the car had to stop. No driving error, no missed setup call. A piece of gravel the size of a coin ended a race the team had every reason to believe in.
Race 2. The second chance lasted even less. Early in the race, another competitor crashed into Sherrington and ended the team's afternoon on the spot. Two races, two retirements, neither of them earned.
The Bigger Picture
There is no way to dress up a double DNF, and we won't try. But strip away the luck and the underlying story from Monza is the most encouraging one yet: the Mirage Racing Supra was genuinely quick. The race pace that was 51 seconds adrift at Paul Ricard Race 1, then 17 seconds by Race 2, had matured into front-running speed by Monza. The trajectory is unmistakable, even if the points column doesn't show it.
As Ruben put it after the weekend: "There was great potential. It is done and we must move onwards."
