Peugeot will be at Le Mans for a while

Le Mans It’s its natural habitat. It’s your home, your environment, and your people. Peugeot made history in 1992 and 1993as in 2009; The 24-hour race in which he dominated alongside Marc Gené in a 908 Diesel prototype, It brought an end to Audi’s five-year dominance. People have not forgotten this at Le Mans and in the past two editions it was not uncommon to find queues at any time of the day at the French team stores. It is their signature, their home, their national pride and also a major attraction for the many tourists who come from all over the world to this mythical event. But since its return to the premier category of the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year, Peugeot has failed to achieve great success. The world’s toughest and most legendary event on asphalt has put a brutal strain on the mythical and iconic brand’s desire to win again.

That’s part of the beauty behind the victory; how hard it is to reach the summit. They are not going to throw in the towel and will try again in 2025 after taking a crucial and important step at the 2024 test held a few weeks ago at the Circuit de La Sarthe.

in Endurance World Cup It has been reborn with the introduction of multiple official brands (8 brands have been added). Toyota) The highest category of current regulations Hypercarthe competitiveness is fierce. There, the lion still has to fight to show its claws. Peugeot fought in this 92nd Le Mans 24 Hours, competing against Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac, BMW, Lamborghini, Alpine and Isotta Frassini And both of his cars finished in the top ten.

The project was started by reliability problems at the end of the championship in 2022 and at the track in 2023. And Peugeot stood out like this when they returned to Le Mans last year with the goal of finishing in the top five. After leading in the rain with a car surprising for its lack of a rear wing, in the 100th anniversary edition, it was possible. But in the end they could not opt ​​for it. A year later, Peugeot reached the top ten with a car that showed great reliability without any setbacks in a very difficult race.as the other side of the coin revealed to the French: Alpine abandoned twice in the first six hours of the race Because of a car malfunction. Le Mans is unforgiving and Peugeot has made a big step in this respect. But now the 9X8 needs more in terms of performance and competitiveness.

Confidence in the project: They want to continue winning

In that sense, MD was able to have a round table conversation at Le Mans. Peugeot CEO Linda Jackson and Jean-Marc Finot said: Senior Vice President of Stellantis Motorsports. “I want to win, erm, Jean-Marc…”“We’re not going to do this,” Linda told Finott with a laugh midway through the meeting. But they both made it clear that this was a long-term journey and that they continued to believe in a project they considered necessary to present themselves to the world.

This year Peugeot changed their car, presenting a new prototype at Imola that already had a rear spoiler, but the fact that they had a new car that had already started the course and been homologated by the FIA ​​meant that they were the first to be penalized through BoP, the equivalence system used to increase equality by limiting the weight and power of cars. After difficult races at Imola and Spa, Linda Jackson issued a serious warning about the brand’s future in the World Endurance Championship: “It’s a significant investment. After three years we have to deliver results.”he claimed after the first race.

And Peugeot returns to Le Mans in 2023 after three years of intensive work to rebuild its competitive structure from scratch, with a clear, concise and very ambitious plan. However, examples such as Ferrari, which returned to the top category of Le Mans in 2023 after its first victory in 50 years (and will win again in 2024), and Porsche, which competed for the win in its second year, have shown Peugeot that it is possible to win immediately. And they must respond.

In this field, Linda Jackson wanted to make it clear that there was no doubt about her commitment to the project and that she needed to keep learning.

“When you decide to participate in a program like this, you are in it for the long term because you have to learn. And every year, you learn and it is important that we learn too,” he said, endorsing the brand’s commitment to the WEC. (World Endurance Championship).

“I want to win, Jean-Marc… (laughs) You know, if you invest in this kind of program, you have to accept that you have made a lot of investment since 2019, so take the time to learn, learn from the mistakes, learn from the good things that happened, and that’s what you have to do,” he added.

Why continue? Marketing, labs, and winning

continue, Linda wanted to explain the importance of Le Mans to Peugeot as a global showcase to continue to shine and grow not only in the French market, but in many other markets too.

“We’re a French brand, so it’s very special for the French to be here. But we’ve also learned some very good statistics: about 35-40% of visitors to Le Mans are from overseas, and of those, 50% are British. So why WEC? Because we are an international brand and the competition involves racing all over the world.If you are French or a French brand, Le Mans is special, but you know, the people there, the drivers, the manufacturers and the cars that you see now are special. They’re forming perhaps the best lineup of all time. As you go along it gets very competitive. And it’s very popular in the United States, for example. I’ve been to six of the eight races on the track and last year I went to Fuji (Japan) and they talked about Le Mans. I did a lot of interviews with Chinese influencers with 200 million followers who talk about Le Mans. Le Mans is known in China. So it’s great to be here and this is our land, so you can imagine the passion and the pressure and a little bit of pressure that we have.”he insisted, lending his comfort zone to the project alongside Finott.

“It’s not only a laboratory, but also a very important marketing tool for us, because we clearly have technology that we’ve learned from Peugeot Sport that we can then incorporate into our own production cars.”Our presence in many countries and our presence in all these regions helps us to spread our name and To let people know what Peugeot is all about, not just the cars but the quality of the cars and the engineering skills of the cars. We decided to get involved in this. Like I said before, when we get on the show in 2019, we’re on it to really establish ourselves. But ultimately we want to win. So, obviously, we all want to win. And that’s our goal. We’re not here to just be competitors. “We want to win. That’s the spirit of it all,” Linda said.

“We are present in many countries and having races in all these regions is very important to let people know what Peugeot is about, not only in terms of our cars, but also in terms of the quality of our cars and our engineering skills.”

Linda Jackson

“The decision we have taken is to commit until 2026, after which we will consider it further in light of the new prospects for the championship.”Finott added, standing nearby.

Finto, I’m sure this car will be a winner.

“We are having the most competitive 24 Hours of Le Mans in history. I’ve never seen anything like it. Probably not just Le Mans, but motorsport and car racing in general.I can’t remember a race where 15 cars could win and no one expected it to happen. We are therefore very happy to be part of this golden era and to write a historic page in Le Mans history.”he pointed out. Finot For his part, he called for patience from the MD, saying: “We need to take into account that we have a new car. This car has had a new homologation. And once we have the new car homologated, it will gain a certain position in weight and power (according to the aforementioned BoP) and then some adjustments will be made.” For now, it’s too early to enjoy this tweak, but the car will catch up with the engineers’ work and the tweaks.”They hope to return in 2025 and try to win the championship. “Am I worried? Not even once.”Finotte concluded in the paper: The lion wants to roar again.

“Am I worried? Not at all. “The car will keep up with the engineers’ work and with the anticipated power and weight adjustments.”

Jean-Marc Finot