Peugeot Backs Jakobsen to Make Impact “From Race One”

Peugeot Sport technical boss Olivier Jansonnie has backed the marque’s new FIA World Endurance Championship signing Malthe Jakobsen to make an instant impact as he steps up from a reserve driver role to a full race seat.

Following the departure of Nico Mueller to Porsche, Jakobsen was named by Peugeot back in July as the Swiss driver’s replacement for the 2025 campaign.

Jakobsen will go into the new season with many testing miles aboard the 9X8 under his belt, having first sampled the car in the post-season rookie test in Bahrain in 2022 before coming on board as an official junior driver the following year.

He was then promoted to the role of official reserve for 2024, and conducted an equal amount of mileage as Peugeot’s six race drivers in the build-up to the season.

“When we first ran him two years ago [in the Bahrain rookie test], he was a very good surprise,” Jansonnie said of Jakobsen. “Since then we have never been disappointed and everything is going in the right direction.

“We think he is ready and we hope to demonstrate this from race one in Qatar. We are completely confident about that.

“He has had a lot of mileage in the car. When we were doing the endurance tests last winter, he drove the same share of laps as all the other drivers, which means a lot of kilometres, and he has been doing a lot of sim work with us as well.

“This is part of the job [of the reserve] as well because the race drivers are very busy with the racing and testing schedule and we need people to help develop the car on the sim.

“Malthe is one of them and he is very good at this.”

Jakobsen made his first steps into sports car racing in 2020 in LMP3 machinery, winning the title in the European Le Mans Series in 2022 for Cool Racing before making his LMP2 debut the following season with the same team.

He finished second overall in the Pro-Am division last year and placed third in the main LMP2 class together with Ritomo Miyata and Lorenzo Fluxa in 2024, as he combined his ELMS campaign with his reserve commitments for Peugeot.

“I feel I am very well prepared for it,” Jakobsen told Sportscar365 when asked how ready he feels to make his Hypercar bow in February’s Qatar 1812km.

“I have been in a nice and comfortable environment here at Peugeot the last two years, so they have been pushing for me for this role.

“I don’t how many kilometres I did, but I am sure it will be [in the many thousands] because I did many endurance tests, both in 2023 and this season.”

Jakobsen added he has been encouraged by the strong end to the season for Peugeot, which picked up a fourth-place finish in the penultimate round at Fuji and third in Bahrain to round off an otherwise difficult year with the revised 9X8.

“I think we are on the right path and there is progress going on,” he said. “We have been improving step by step, the car has been getting better and better.

“I think they have shown at Fuji and then here [Bahrain] that it’s possible as long as you never give up and keep working hard, but still there is a long way to go to win.”

Jakobsen clarified that he will continue to remain active in LMP2 this year.

“I can’t tell you where I will be racing and where, but I think it’s a good training to have besides WEC to stay sharp,” he said. “But for sure the WEC will take priority.”

Jakobsen is currently contesting the Asian Le Mans Series with Algarve Pro Racing, and has already been confirmed for this month’s Rolex 24 at Daytona with the same team, operating under the CrowdStrike Racing by APR banner.