By Carlo Platella
Peugeot is coming off its best result of the season, with fourth and eighth place achieved at Fuji. What happened in Japan, however, does not hide the gap that separates the French Hypercar from the top competition, with work still to be done. The team still has some development tokens to spend, despite the extensive updates introduced in Imola. Before that, however, the priority is to find a better attitude window.
Study phase
Olivier Jansonnie, Peugeot technical director, speaks directly on the topic, whose words were reported by Sportscar365: “We are currently evaluating several things. We identified some aspects and started to take care of some things on the car. […] We expect that we can partly solve the problems with the tuning. Once we have a clear picture of what can’t be fixed with trim alone, then we will have to consider development tokens”.
Peugeot finds itself familiar with a car of which, after the modifications made at Imola, it has come to change the concept. The basic structure is the same, but the 9X8 has also changed on a mechanical level. Under the skin, a lot of work was done to move the weight distribution towards the rear axle, where wider tires were fitted to fill the large traction gaps. In addition, the entire external aerodynamics have changed, of which the appearance of the rear wing stands out, also shifting the aerodynamic balance towards the rear.
Pilots and engineers agree that the changes have improved tractionalthough the 9X8 is not yet at the level of Ferrari and Toyota. The incisive braking of the original design remains valid, accompanied by lower aerodynamic resistance, resulting in higher top speeds. The most important gain, however, is the widening of the tuning window, with greater set-up options available thanks also to the move away from the BoP limit parameters.
Potential to be extracted
Unfortunately, so far the improvements have not translated into competitiveness and outstanding results, but according to Jansonnie it is a physiological delay, due to the time needed to get to know the new car: “It was clear that it would be difficult to overturn the ranking, but certainly There is more potential in the car than we have shown so far”. This was partly glimpsed in the closing stages of the 6 Hours of Fuji. Peugeot still has the race and tests in Bahrain to express the potential of the 9X8, highlight its limits and decide where to intervene with the next updates. “Once you start to get closer to that point, you can see what you’re missing and what needs to change in terms of approval,” concludes the technical director.
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