Connect with us

FIA WEC

Mueller Sees Peugeot Progress; Toyota “Hard to Beat”

Nico Mueller reflects on Peugeot’s progress heading in to WEC season opener at Sebring…

Photo: MPS Agency

Nico Mueller reckons that Peugeot has made substantial steps forward during the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue at Sebring, but added that it will be challenging to take the fight to reigning champion Toyota.

The No. 94 Peugeot 9X8, which Mueller shares with Loic Duval and Gustavo Menezes, covered significant ground across the WEC’s two-day pre-season test by completing a total of 225 laps.

That put the car fourth in terms of mileage covered, ranking only behind the pair of Toyota GR010 Hybrids and the No. 5 Porsche 963 in terms of laps completed.

In contrast to several of its Hypercar class rivals, including Ferrari and Porsche, Peugeot arrived at Sebring having not completed any testing at the circuit prior to the Prologue.

“We definitely made progress,” Mueller said. “It’s the first time here with the 9X8.

“It’s a very unique track and we’re up against competition which have been testing here for several days.

“We knew that we had some experience to catch up on that is Sebring-specific. So far it’s nothing to go crazy about, we still have progress to do.

“Sebring has its unique challenges where we’ve been heading into the right direction but still there’s potential to be exploited.”

When asked about specific areas of improvement over the three WEC races Peugeot ran in the latter half of the 2022 campaign, Mueller pointed towards gains in straight line pace.

“Last year we had one point where we were really struggling, which was top speed,” the Swiss driver noted.

“I think we’ve made a big step forward there. For us behind the steering wheel, it’s the easiest lap time you can get because you can’t do much wrong there.

“So that feels good, to at least be on the level there, it looks like.”

Despite Peugeot’s improvements Mueller still reckoned that the pair of Toyotas, which topped all but one Prologue session and ran largely without problem across the weekend, are likely still to hold a significant advantage heading into the race weekend.

“It’s especially our friends from Cologne/Japan that look very strong,” Mueller hinted.

“They are the most experienced with that sort of regulations.

“They’re in the flow, they’ve been operational on this level in this championship for many, many years and I think they’re the reference.

“I think we have to be realistic. I think after what we’ve seen at the Prologue, I think they will be hard to beat for us.

“I don’t know about the others, but the gap to other manufacturers who have tested here a lot was not so big.”

Vasselon: Toyota ‘Quite Obviously’ Seems to Have an Edge

Mueller’s comments were backed up by Toyota technical director Pascal Vasselon, who was pleased with the showing the Japanese outfit put in during testing.

However, the Frenchman was quick to put Toyota’s Prologue pace into perspective and stated that the question of true pace across the 11-car Hypercar pack remains yet to be answered.

The WEC teams did not dip below the 1:48 mark all weekend, with Jose Maria Lopez setting the fastest lap at 1:48.208.

This is in contrast to a sanctioned IMSA test in February where Acura, Cadillac and Porsche all set times in the 1:47 range, with Filipe Albuquerque topping the timesheets with a 1:46.450 for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport.

“The conclusion would be quite obvious that we seem to have an edge,” said Vasselon.

“If you look at the perspective of the IMSA test which happened a few weeks ago, with some of the competitors which are there, they were in the 47s.

“So our lap times which looked good these two days, don’t look good at all if you compare them with the IMSA [test] just a few weeks ago.

“It’s a question mark we have at the moment. We are not on top of this question.”

Vasselon refuted the notion that the difference in lap times between the IMSA test and the Prologue was related to power levels.

Cars ran with minor power differences between the two tests, with IMSA competitors allocated 520 kW (697 hp) while the GR010 Hybrid runs with a maximum power output of 517 kW (693 hp) for the opening WEC race.

“Here we are talking about two seconds gap in pace,” Vasselon stated.

“We are not talking about one or two-tenths. The change in BoP is a few kW. I don’t have the answer.

“Maybe the track was much colder. Maybe there was much more rubber. This is what prevented us from making clear conclusions after this test.

“Some of the cars which we seen to be quite easily faster were in 47s weeks ago.”

Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.

Click to comment
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

More in FIA WEC