Peugeot Sport will cease its involvement in World RX at the end of 2018

The announcement unfortunately recalls the one which saw the termination of the program Endurance of the 908 at the time of the passage of WEC to hybrid powertrains. Peugeot Sport, via a tweet from Jean-Philippe Imparato, director of the brand, formalized the end of its World RX program at the end of the 2018 season.

“After presenting its new generation of Plug-In Hybrid cars at the Paris Motor Show, integrating the new electrification strategy, Peugeot announces the development of new electric sports cars from 2020, indicates Jean-Philippe Imparato.

Peugeot will concentrate its resources on the development of such cars, and has therefore decided to withdraw from World RX at the end of the 2018 season, a series whose evolution towards electrification is uncertain. »

Peugeot will concentrate its resources on developing these new vehicles and has therefore decided to withdraw from the WRX championship at the end of the 2018 season, whose evolution towards electrification is uncertain.

— Jean-Philippe Imparato (@JPImparato) 18th October, 2018

An echo of the postponement to 2021 of the arrival of the 100% electric championship, decided by the promoter and the FIA ​​last August “to give more preparation time to brands wishing to get involved. » as indicated by officials.

Peugeot Sport had linked up with Team Hansen for its commitment to World RX with the 208 in recent seasons, with the main achievement being a Teams title in 2015, but without ever succeeding in the last two years in rising to the level of PSRX. VW Sweden.

The Lion brand had also succeeded in attracting Sébastien Loeb on his program, the nine-time world champion achieving two victories in 2016 (Latvia) and 2018 (Belgium). Timmy Hansen, driver of the team, was quick to react to this announcement on his Facebook account.

This termination of the program rallycross of Peugeot thus raises the question of the future of the brand in motor racing, the PSA group having distributed its forces between WRC for Citroën and Formula E for DS.