"With a knife between its teeth", Peugeot wants to "play for the podium in every race" in 2025

The end of the 2024 season of Peugeot en WEC gives ambitions to the French manufacturer as it approaches this new financial year. We are approaching 2025 with a knife between our teeth, says Jean-Marc Finot, vice-president of Stellantis Motorsport. We had a great end to the 2024 season with fourth place at Fuji and third in Bahrain where the whole team was in operational excellence, whether in terms of strategy or execution. Now we need to find a little more performance. »

Peugeot close to the podium in Qatar in 2024

Peugeot has not been idle during the off-season and has continued the development of the 9X8 during test sessions at Le Castellet and in Qatar, a circuit that the 2.0 version of the car, inaugurated in competition at the 6 Hours of Imola last year, will discover in racing. In 2024, the wingless iteration of the prototype had shown itself to be particularly at ease on the Doha circuit by leading the event for 37 laps with the n°93. It even came very close to the podium since Jean-Eric Vergne was still in second position before running out of fuel at the start of the last lap.

« Losail is one of the circuits that suits us best with its very smooth surface, long fast corners and quite a few straights that offer plenty of overtaking opportunities., explains the Frenchman when returning to Doha. I love this track and it worked pretty well for Peugeot last year until the end of the race. We hope to be as good this year. We did a lot of testing in the off-season to continue developing the car and working on small details that can make the difference. I can't wait for the season to start and on the #93, I'll be reunited with Mikkel (Jensen) and Paul (di Resta), my teammates from 2023. »

The Briton will in fact take over Nico Müller's place in this crew, who left for Porsche and Andretti in Formula E.

« Apart from this mistake so close to the goal, this race had been quite successful for us last year., recognizes Olivier Jansonnie, technical director of Peugeot Sport. This does not mean that it will work for us this year, because the car and the constraints are different. What we want this season is for our level of performance to allow us to compete with the best and take advantage of the opportunities to aim for the highest steps of the podiums. The objective is to be able to play for the podium in each race, starting with Qatar. »

A goal " ambitious " recognizes Jansonnie, " because the FIA ​​WEC is extremely competitive. "" We are living in a golden age ofEndurance, adds the French engineer. We are lucky to experience this. It is very exciting and highly motivating for the teams, but places are expensive, very expensive… »

Jakobsen ready for Peugeot racing debut

The 1812 km of Qatar will also mark the debut of a new regular driver within Team Peugeot TotalEnergies with Malthe Jakobsen in the n°94 alongside Loïc duval and Stoffel Vandoorne. The Dane arrives in Qatar with confidence, having just won the Asian title Le Mans Series with Algarve Pro Racing.

« Since the Bahrain Rookies Test last November, I have competed in the Asian Le Mans Series, the 24 Hours of Daytona and I have also participated in the development sessions of the Peugeot 9X8., he explains. It was also on this occasion that I discovered the Losail circuit. It is a very flat track, with fast corners and very little tyre degradation. The team had a great race in Qatar last year and I hope we can achieve a good result this season. This will be my first race with the Peugeot TotalEnergies team and my teammates Stoffel and Loïc on the #94, who are very experienced. I have a lot to learn from them. »

The first WEC Prologue practice session will take place from 11:00 to 14:00 (French time) this Friday.

Discover the WEC 2025 Prologue program in Qatar HERE