Peugeot insists it is committed to WEC despite poor 9X8 results

Peugeot has strongly hinted that it will remain in the World Endurance Championship for the foreseeable future despite another lacklustre showing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The French manufacturer came away with a best finish of 12th in the 93rd running of the French endurance classic, with Loic Duval, Malthe Jakobsen and Stoffel Vandoorne finishing three laps down on the winning No. 83 Ferrari.

Peugeot has been competing in the WEC's Hypercar class since the middle of the 2022 season, but its 9X8 LMH hasn’t been anywhere as competitive as it had hoped.

The Stellantis brand debuted a revised version of the car with high hopes at Imola last year, but it has only managed to score on podium in the WEC since then.

Peugeot is now understood to be evaluating various solutions, including developing an all-new hypercar to replace the tricky 9X8.

WEC’s organiser Automobile Club de’l Ouest and the FIA announced an extension to the lifespan of LMDh and LMH cars in the Hypercar class until 2032 at Le Mans, but no mention was made about a second car homologation that would allow Peugeot to build a replacement to the 9X8.

Speaking after last weekend’s race, Peugeot said it is working on deciding its future course of action, but is keen on continuing in the WEC.

"Our goal is to remain competitive for a long time, so the target is set ," Peugeot motorsport chief Jean-Marc Finot was quoted by Motorsport.com France. "And then we are in discussions to set a path that I cannot describe today because there are still a lot of unknowns in the equation. It's a bit early, it's June, we'll talk about it again at Christmas.

"Our desire is to continue, and that's everyone's desire, because Peugeot's presence is also an asset for the championship, but we have to find a way to make it fair for everyone and possible to do so. But there really is a great desire to commit."

"The advantage is that we have leaders who are interested in sport, who understand the context, and who know how to put the day's performance into context. That's a blessing for us."

Peugeot had already written off its chances of a strong finish at Le Mans in the build-up to the race, having indirectly expressed its unhappiness at the Balance of Performance adjustments made for the WEC’s centrepiece event.

The No. 93 9X8 dropped out of contention early after Paul di Resta hit the barriers at Porsche Curves while trying to lap GT traffic, sustaining heavy rear bodywork damage in the process. A steering issue later in the night compromised the No. 93 further, leaving Vandoorne, Jean-Eric Vergne and Mikkel Jensen eight laps down in 17th place.

The No. 94 Peugeot had a cleaner race, but its strategy was disrupted when Paul-Loup Chatin crashed into the car in the seventh hour - an incident for which the Alpine driver was hit with a drive-through.

Summing up the race, Finot said: "We knew, given the rules, that we had a pace handicap: we saw it in qualifying and it was no surprise to anyone.

"We had established a strategy to take this pace handicap into account. We adopted a slower pace to save energy, increase the number of laps and reduce the number of stints. This allowed us to stay in the race longer than expected."

"For example, after six hours, we were a few seconds behind the Cadillac that had started on the front row. And despite the Alpines having an intrinsically faster pace than us, we were in the fight with them. The team did an excellent job and I'm very proud of it."
"Despite the stakes not being at the level we could have hoped for after the Spa race, we remained very focused on operations and we can see that the No. 94, with a race close to faultless, is achieving maximum performance in relation to the package."

"At Le Mans, there's the pace, the operational focus, the tyre strategy, the energy, and then there are the opportunities. We were counting on the latter, but they were quite rare. I'm very proud of the team, even without the automatic enthusiasm of aiming for the podium."