Peugeot Not Ruling Out Early Driver Lineup Change

Peugeot has refused to rule out a change to its driver lineup before the end of the current FIA World Endurance Championship season, as speculation mounts that Stoffel Vandoorne could depart the team early ahead of a move to Genesis.

The French manufacturer became the first in Hypercar to confirm that it will be welcoming a new driver for the 2026 campaign, as it announced the arrival of Nick Cassidy in the run-up to this weekend’s race at the Circuit of The Americas.

However, Cassidy is likely to be joined by another new arrival on the Peugeot roster in the form of current reserve driver Theo Pourchaire, who, like the New Zealander, will also get behind the wheel of the 9X8 in a test at COTA to be held on Tuesday.

Vandoorne meanwhile has become increasingly linked to a possible move to the new-for-2026 Genesis LMDh program in recent weeks, and an early release from Peugeot would theoretically allow him to take part in testing of the marque’s GMR-001 Hypercar that began last month with a first full-scale outing at Paul Ricard.

Addressing the subject of further driver changes beyond Cassidy’s arrival, Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie said that while Peugeot has no other announcements planned in the near future but admitted Pourchaire is a candidate to step up.

“We will not release anything more on the drivers for now,” Jansonnie told reporters on Thursday. “But Theo has been running for us in testing already.

“At some point, he will [race] for us, the question is when and how do we do it. We need the best preparation at the right time for us and for him as well.”

Asked by Sportscar365 whether there was a possibility of changes to the lineup for the remaining races of 2025 at Fuji and Bahrain, Jansonnie replied: “This is still unclear.

“We are trying to build for the future, and once we know what is going to happen, then it’s important for us to optimize the 2026 season that starts in Qatar.

“It’s only eight races, so we need to be ready, and we’ll do whatever we can to be ready.”

However, Jansonnie ruled out the prospect of Cassidy stepping up to a race seat early, leaving Pourchaire as the only candidate to replace Vandoorne this year.

“We have no plan for Nick to drive [in a race] in 2025,” he said.

Vandoorne first joined Peugeot’s Hypercar outfit as a reserve driver in 2023 before stepping up to a full-time race drive in 2024, while also simultaneously racing for sister Stellantis brands DS and latterly Maserati in Formula E.

Speculation that the Belgian driver is Genesis-bound comes as he is expected to depart the Maserati MSG team, which is expected to morph into Citroen for the 2025/26 season, and potentially walk away from the all-electric championship altogether.

Vandoorne was reluctant to give any hints about his future speaking to Sportscar365.

“I have a contract, yeah,” he said when asked directly if he expected to see out the 2025 WEC campaign in the No. 94 Peugeot.

“Next year I don’t know, there’s still a lot of discussions ongoing. I just want to focus on having a good end of the season and then we will see where the future will lead.

“At the moment I don’t know exactly where that stands but we’ll just keep focused on the current job and then things will sort themselves out by themselves.”

Besides Vandoorne, Peugeot is set for at least one more of its current drivers to depart its Hypercar roster with Cassidy and Pourchaire both coming on board for 2026.

Mikkel Jensen and Malthe Jakobsen appear to be the most in-demand drivers from other manufacturers, with both thought to be potential targets for McLaren when it joins the WEC’s top class in 2027, while Paul di Resta also has links to McLaren via his long-standing relationship with the United Autosports team that will run the program.

Davey Euwema contributed to this report