Peugeot nears Le Mans call as testing of 9X8 continues

A decision is due within two weeks on whether Peugeot will race its new World Endurance Championship contender at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June as the 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar continues to test without a rear wing.

The big decision will be made before the publication of the entry list for the double-points round of the WEC on 11-12 June, Peugeot has revealed. The date set for the release of the 62 cars invited to Le Mans is either 28 February or 1 March.

“The Le Mans entry list will be released at the end of February or the beginning of March, so we will have to make our decision before,” explained Jean-marc Finot, motorsport boss of the Stellantis group of which Peugeot is a memeber. “It will be a tough decision because all of us would like to race as soon as possible. But because the car will be frozen [in specification] as soon as it is homologated it would be insane to take too much risk and pay the price for four years [Peugeot is committed to the WEC until the end of 2025].”

Should the French manufacturer give the green light to return to Le Mans this year, it would also compete in the WEC round at Spa in early May. The series organisation has said that it would demand that the 9X8 participate in Belgiun if it was going to be on the grid at Le Mans, while Peugeot has stressed that it always intended to go to Spa should it make an affirmative call on Le Mans.

The decision will be made after a third proper test for the 9X8, which continued development at Paul Ricard last week (above) after a maiden run on a race circuit at Aragon in January.

Olivier Jansonnie, technical director of the WEC programme at Peugeot Sport, expressed satisfaction with testing so far.

“If the question is if we have had any issues with the concept, the answer is no,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t any issues; we’re just saying that we haven’t found any yet. The aero is part of it, probably the most obvious part, but there are many other different concept choices we have made on the car that are just as critical as the aero or even more critical. Conceptually, so far so good.”

Peugeot began endurance running over the three days at Ricard last week, though Jansonnie suggested it was “too early to call it a proper endurance simulation”. The test included night running and full stints on a tank of fuel.

Five of the six Peugeot race drivers were present at last week’s test: Loic Duval, Paul di Resta and Gustavo Menezes who drove at Aragon, as well as Kevin Magnussen and Mikkel Jensen. Jean-eric Vergne couldn’t be at Ricard due to his Formula E campaign for fellow Stellantis party DS, and has yet to drive the car.

Peugeot has won Le Mans three times, the last occasion in 2009.