Menezes Expects Hypercar to “Slowly Unravel” Over Race Week

Peugeot driver Gustavo Menezes expects the pecking order between the Hypercar manufacturers to “slowly unravel” during race week leading up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The French manufacturer’s pair of LMH cars ended up seventh and tenth overall on the official test day, while the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 that Menezes shares with Nico Mueller and Loic Duval covered the most ground in the top class with 70 laps equating to 593 miles.

Menezes told reporters that he feels it’s too early to read into the test day results and that he expects “two different kinds of races” to emerge in the build-up to the 100th anniversary edition of Le Mans, which boasts an increased field in the top category.

“The test day is just the test day, in the end,” said the American driver.

“We focus on our own program and we don’t know where the others are. We’ll see things slowly unravel throughout.

“Honestly, there are two different kinds of races in Le Mans. There is the ultimate pace battle, which is always exciting. It’s cool to have the Hyperpole.

“I think we’re going to see some true pace unlocked from some of the competitors throughout the week.

“But then there’s the race pace in the 24-hour race, which is the important one. It’s the thing that you really have to look at, not what’s topping the charts but the average pace throughout.

“It’s going to be interesting throughout the week to see where everyone is at, and where we’re at.

“As of now, we can only focus on our own performance. We know where we’re at, and we know there’s still a lot of work and we have to stay humble and keep working because there’s a lot coming.”

Although the Peugeots ranked outside the Hypercar top five in the overall test day times, the No. 94 car set the second-fastest lap in the first session, six-tenths behind the leading No. 50 Ferrari 499P.

Menezes expects the order to evolve between the test and the race but he indicated that it was encouraging for the Peugeot crew to have an early boost at the start of a hectic week.

“At the end, it’s always encouraging for all the mechanics and guys here,” he said.

“It’s a two-week build before we start at Le Mans. To come out of the box and not be anywhere terrible for performance is never bad, but we have to stay humble.

“We just keep building at our own pace. We don’t know what pace everyone else has. It could always be worse, so we’ll take what we have and call it a decent day.

“I was having a laugh with one of the engineers during the safety car exercise. He said, ‘you’re in the lead’ and I said, ‘it’s good to hear that!’ Just joking and teasing but it gives good spirit to all the mechanics and guys in the team who are putting in the hard work.

“It’s still a long journey to go. We just focus on our own program and see where we go throughout the week.”

The No. 93 Peugeot registered just over half the mileage of its sister car during the test day after a suspected hybrid-related problem took hold in the opening session.

Driver Mikkel Jensen said that the team has been “focusing a lot” on stamping out the reliability issues that impacted Peugeot’s early races with the 9X8 last year.

The manufacturer switched from electric to hydraulic gear shift actuation for the 6 Hours of Portimao, which helped to stem the problems encountered at the Sebring season-opener.

“We just had an electrical issue,” said Jensen. “It took a long time to identify exactly what was right, but we made it back on track.”

He added: “We don’t know if we are going to have the reliability issues here [in the race] that we’ve had recently.

“We’ve been focusing a lot on that and it’s taken a lot of time in the development program, so we haven’t been focusing too much on developing the car for the pace.

“So we’ve been a bit off. But it’s early to say. We’ve only done the test day so I have no idea, to be honest.

“It’s hard to judge today where we are in terms of the competition.”