24h Le Mans
Team Peugeot TotalEnergies is stepping up development work on its Hypercar. The Peugeot 9X8 will take its place on the FIA World Endurance Championship grid in the course of the 2022 season.
After an initial shakedown session in December, Team Peugeot TotalEnergies is conducting an intensive testing campaign this month. The French carmaker has set two clear goals: development and engagement.
The team will continue to work off and on the track to turn the 9X8, with its special characteristics, into a reliable, competitive racing car. The 9X8 is therefore still running without a rear wing. “This configuration is permitted by the ACO/FIA Hypercar regulations,” says Olivier Jansonnie, the Technical Director of Peugeot Sport’s WEC programme. “Our calculations and wind tunnel work have confirmed the pertinence of our decision. Along with the developments and settings this option calls for, we expect it to be validated as we test at different circuits with differing characteristics.”
Team Peugeot TotalEnergies’ current development campaign is crucial as a successful outcome will see the 9X8 homologated until 2025. The marque must therefore firm up the technical features of its Hypercar before it can take on the other major manufacturers in the FIA WEC including, of course, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The recently published entry list for season 10 of the FIA WEC featured two Peugeot 9X8s. The first bears the number 93 in a nod to the 905’s famous clean sweep at the 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans. The sister car will be #94.
Jean-Marc Finot, Director, Stellantis Motorsport: Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies will not attend the first of the six rounds that make up the 2022 calendar which kicks off at Sebring in Florida. The 9X8 will make its race début based on its level of readiness, reliability and competitiveness as agreed with the championship’s organisers who we will keep regularly updated as our development programme progresses. We could have opted for attending selected races only without committing to the season. That would have been possible but less coherent. Instead, we have chosen an approach that will enable the team to be fully immersed in the discipline, resulting in much closer collaboration with the organisers even if the 9X8 doesn’t contest every race as our development work and the homologation process continue.
Photographs of the Peugeot 9X8 undergoing testing.
Watch and enjoy the Peugeot 9X8 in track action in this short clip.
