Official: Stoffel Vandoorne starts at Peugeot in 2024

As expected, Stoffel Vandoorne will be the starter in WEC in Peugeot in 2024. A few days after the announcement of the departure of Gustavo Menezes towards other horizons, the French manufacturer formalized the promotion of the Belgian driver, until now a reserve for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies.

🦁Finally!! Joining @peugeotsport next season and super happy to be back on the WEC grid! I've had some great moments in endurance racing and I'm excited to create many more together💪🏼 pic.twitter.com/joxCAngvuq

- Stoffel Vandoorne (@svandoorne) September 21, 2023

Vandoorne already knows the World ChampionshipEndurance of the FIA, since he made his debut in the discipline in 2019 with SMP Racing in the LM P1 category before finishing runner-up in LM P2 with Jota Sport in 2021 alongside Tom Blomqvist and Sean Gelael. More recently, the native of Kortrijk (31 years old) competed in the 6 Hours of Fuji (September 10). In Japan, the former pilot McLaren F1 took part in his first race in the Hypercar category, replacing Nico Müller, who suffered a collarbone injury.

For his first race with the 9X8, which he already knew from a test carried out in Aragon in March, Vandoorne had given satisfaction. “ It is a great pride to establish Stoffel Vandoorne within the Peugeot TotalEnergies Team, how Jean-Marc Finot, director of motorsport at Stellantis. As he showed in Fuji, his team spirit, performance and consistency are perfectly in line with those of his teammates. Of course we already know Stoffel well, DS Penske driver in Formula E, which is part of the Stellantis Motorsport family of drivers and its ability to immediately be on the pace confirms the complementarity of the FIA ​​Formula E and WEC championships and the interest for all in having drivers who can participate in both formulas. »

« I am very happy to join the team as an official driver from the 2024 season, adds Stoffel Vandoorne. The FIA ​​WEC has always been a championship that I like and that I already know having played there in 2019 and 2021. My objective was clearly to return to this championship, and even more now with the Hypercar category, made up of numerous builders. Having the opportunity to be able to fight in the general classification and in the 24 Hours of Le Mans is fantastic because I think it's a dream for many drivers. I am very happy to join this team and to be able to launch with Peugeot. »

The 2024 WEC season will begin on March 2 with the 1812km of Qatar.

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