Peugeot’s ordeal in the FIA World Endurance Championship continues, despite the fact that the conditions for something good were there at the Circuit Of The Americas.
The Balance of Performance had finally been made a little more lenient with the 2024 version of the 9X8, but at the Lone Star Le Mans the Lion’s Hypercars never gave the impression of being able to be protagonists, apart from the first glimpses of the American 6 Hours.
It is true that the #94 of Duval/Vandoorne/Di Resta was hit at the start by another car and had to come back to replace the punctured rear left tyre, before throwing in the towel due to a hybrid problem, but the #93 of Müller/Vergne/Jensen only recovered a few places at the start, hovering around the last positions of the Top 10, before slipping to 12th place without a fight.
Faced with this latest outing, doubts are growing as to how the transalpine team’s adventure in the series will continue and even from its top ranks there are worrying admissions of guilt.
#94 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Paul Di Resta, Loic Duval, Stoffel Vandoorne
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“It was a very tough race today. There are not many positives to take from the weekend, apart perhaps from our performance in qualifying, where we missed out on the Hyperpole by two hundredths, and the start of the #93 in the race,” said Olivier Jansonnie, Technical Director of Peugeot Sport.
“We lacked pace and maybe we didn’t make the best choices regarding the tyres. I would like to thank the team for the hard work done during the track sessions, now we are already focused on Japan and the 6 Hours of Fuji, which will take place in two weeks.”
Jean-Marc Finot, Vice President of Stellantis Motorsport, added: “We spent most of the race with just one car, as the #94 dropped out of contention very quickly, only to run into a technical issue that we will need to analyse.”
“The #93 made a good start, climbing up to sixth, but then the pace was lacking. Compared to what we expected, the conditions in the race were less demanding than in qualifying, where we had to manage the degradation. We had to adapt and did not have the pace expected. We need to continue working to get into the top 10 and then aim for the top 5.”
#WEC #Peugeot #disappointment #positive
