The statement made in view of this weekend’s Fuji 6h came despite the 3rd place achieved by the French LMH in the previous round of the championship in Monza.
Car #93, shared by Paul di Resta, Jean-Eric Vergne and Mikkel Jensen, scored the first podium finish for the 9X8 after leading much of the opening stint at the 6h of Monza in July.
“In Monza we had very good performances at the start of the race, but not so much at the end – said Jansonnie – If you look at those over the entire race, we are still a bit behind Toyota and Ferrari. Furthermore, We had a problem with a car.”
The #94 driven by Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes and Nico Muller had problems with the gear selector.
Duval, who will share the #94 with Menezes and Peugeot’s reserve Stoffel Vandoorne this weekend after Muller was sidelined by injury, with the Frenchman confirming Jansonnie’s statement.
“Winning? It still doesn’t seem that close to me, to be honest. If we consider last year’s performance and the growth we’ve had after the 24 Hours of Le Mans, I’d say I have good expectations of playing for it,” explains the Frenchman.
“We had difficult moments, but now we are getting closer and we can try to raise our level and try to reach what we want, which is a podium every weekend.”
#94 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes, Nico Müller
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
Jansonnie stressed that the primary objective for Peugeot remains to get both cars across the line without problems.
“At Monza we lost a car in the early stages of the race and this reduces the chances of getting a good result by 50%. Keeping both in action with the right strategy and the right tires will be the main objective.”
Peugeot believes it has overcome the Monza gearbox problem after introducing new mechanical parts during three days of testing at Portimao, in the break between Monza and Fuji.
This was a further revision of the new hydraulic system introduced for the Portuguese round of the WEC in April.
“I expect Fuji to be a good track for us, based on the racing done in 2022. The 9X8 is a significant step up from its then debut at Monza,” continues Jansonnie.
However, changing the deployment speed of Peugeot’s front-axle hybrid system should have no effect on the balance between the cars competing in the Hypercar class this weekend.
Peugeot will be able to activate front-wheel drive from 135km/h in dry conditions, down from the 150km/h it previously had, although this figure remains in effect when the track is wet.
Before Monza, a single Balance of Performance was published for the last three rounds of this year’s WEC, with separate tables for each race. The different values, including those explained above for Peugeot, reflect the different characteristics of the Monza, Fuji and Bahrain circuits.
“It is a single BoP for the three races, adapted to each individual circuit. In practice it should give the same result,” concludes Jansonnie.
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