Endurance
After the Test Day, Peugeot tackles the real 24 Hours of Le Mans
Peugeot and his men prepare for combat. © Joao Filipe / DPPI
From his last participation in 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2011, Peugeot doesn't have very good memories. After the abandonment of two of the three Audi R18 TDIs, the manufacturer found itself in a strong position with three official 908s and one customer from Team Oreca Matmut.
Despite the numerical superiority, the Sochaux firm failed to get its hands on the winner's trophy which it had lost in 2010 to Audi. This gave us a great opportunity to register a 4e once his name on the list of winners of the Le Mans event.
Peugeot facing the challenge
Ten years later, it is in a completely different state of mind that Peugeot returns to Sarthe. No Audi this time but nevertheless fierce competition against which the Lion has not been really successful since its return in Endurance in July 2022. The 9X8 is still struggling to convince on the track unlike other Hypercars which debuted later like the Cadillacs or the Ferrari.
But the disappointments of the latter do not matter for Peugeot. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is a special race where previous results do not necessarily count. To prepare for this Centenary edition, the Lion participated in the Test Day during which only the No. 93 encountered problems. Despite this problempine, everything went well overall for the 9X8s, now ready to take action.
« We have physically become acquainted with the track, even if historically it is of course not a discovery, advance Jean-Marc Finot, director of Stellantis Motorsport. We were able to test the limits of the car on certain settings, and also devoted this day to driving to see the evolution of the car's behavior depending on the number of stints, for example with tire wear, in order to glean as much data as possible before getting to the heart of the matter and the week of Le Mans. We were able to roll out our work plan despite an electrical problem on the No. 93 which we wanted to secure before returning to the track. » Now for the race, the real one, the one that counts!
Gonzalo Forbes
In charge of promotion formulas (F2, F3, FRECA, F4...). Carried by the grace of Franco Colapinto.
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