Peugeot Hoping to Be Rewarded By Focus on Race Pace

Peugeot technical boss Olivier Jansonnie has downplayed the marque’s lackluster qualifying showing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, adding he hopes its focus on optimizing its race pace at the expense of pure one-lap performance pays off.

The two 9X8s will line up 15th and 20th on the grid for this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship blue riband after a difficult first qualifying session for the French outfit on Wednesday night.

But Jansonnie is adamant that Peugeot can still target a strong result despite its status as underdogs in the Hypercar class based on the basis of the preparations it has made in terms of pace over a stint.

He described the 1.7-second gap by which Peugeot lagged the fastest cars in first qualifying as “not huge” considering the length of the Circuit de la Sarthe.

“At Le Mans we’ve had some years with people winning this race with much more performance deficit on qualifying,” Jansonnie said.

“We expect a competitive race. The starting position is not so relevant. Of course our pace in qualifying was not as good as the competition, this is clear, but the question is whether we can optimize our pace in the race.

“We also expect the relative performance of the cars will move during the race. We have seen cars in some cases this year that were not the best performer, and then were good in the wet, for example.

“The hardest part will be to manage the transition from dry to wet.”

Jansonnie added that he hopes the Peugeot’s apparent strength in a straight line compared to its competitors, with a highest-recorded top speed of 343.4 km/h (213.4 mph) over the course of the week so far, will help the two 9X8 crews gain ground.

“We tried to work on that during the test day and free practice on the race set-up,” he said when asked about the 9X8’s straight line performance.

“We didn’t optimize everything we could for qualifying. The race will tell us whether this was the right approach or not. But for sure we worked for the race.”

Asked where the 9X8 was giving away time to its rivals, Jansonnie replied: “It seems we are lacking in high-speed corners, basically.”

He added that setting up the car, which is only in its third WEC race, for both the soft- and medium-compound Michelin tires, has also proved a challenge.

“There is a compromise between the tire life and stint duration and the car balance,” Jansonnie. “It’s been difficult for us to balance the set-up between those two tires and optimize for both tires.

“Two weeks ago everyone was expecting a race almost fully on the medium. But now it turns out it will mostly be on softs, especially if we have rain in what should normally be the hottest time of the day.”

Jansonnie dismissed suggestions that the potential for a rain-impacted race could play into the hands of Peugeot despite the apparent strength of the old ‘wingless’ 9X8 in mixed conditions in 2023.

“What we saw last year was a very sudden and very heavy storm,” said Jansonnie. “I wouldn’t call it stabilized wet conditions.

“I think what we did was react very well to that, the team and the drivers. So it’s not really about the pure performance in the rain. It’s more about getting the right tires at the right moment, and that’s how you gain time.”

Asked whether the narrower front tires of the new 9X8 compared to the version that raced last year could present a disadvantage in the rain, Jansonnie said: “I don’t think so.”