908: Peugeot confirms information from AUTOhebdo

Tongues are being loosened in the affair surrounding the suspicious crash of two Peugeot 908s, during private test sessions, and which AUTOhebdo reported on in its edition dated March 9. The technical director of Peugeot Sport, Bruno Famin, today gives a version of the events that occurred at the end of February in Castellet, and where the car is in no way blamed.

“It (the 908, editor's note) had been driving for 7 or 8 hours when it spun at high speed, resulting in a fairly serious crash since the 908 took off.” Famin specifies that during this session, a new aerodynamic package was introduced, which pushed the technical staff to test new settings: “the car was considered a little lively by the drivers (…), but we did not have had a problem.”

Bruno Famin, who rules out a driving error by Nicolas Minassian, believes at the same time that the 908 is free of any design fault, not making it easier to understand this accident which occurred at Le Castellet: “Nicolas did not make a mistake . He passed as usual, except the car spun. Afterwards, it's all a question of interpretations. But there was no failure on the car, that’s for sure.”

Since then, Peugeot Sport drivers and engineers have traveled to Sebring, in the United States, where the first round of the ILMC championship will take place this weekend. This first race will be very instructive as to the real behavior of the new 908 on a track considered very difficult for the mechanics.

Find the AUTOhebdo ILMC Guide on newsstands from Wednesday March 16, with all the teams, all the cars, all the drivers, the circuits, the issues, etc.