Peugeot Set for Further Driver Lineup Changes in 2027

Peugeot is poised to undergo another driver shake-up heading into the 2027 FIA World Endurance Championship season, with at least two of the French marque’s current drivers unlikely to return next year.

After introducing two new drivers to its lineup in the form of Nick Cassidy and Theo Pourchaire over the winter, Peugeot is set to have further gaps to plug in its roster as two of its incumbents, Malthe Jakobsen and Stoffel Vandoorne, are set to leave.

Jakobsen has long been rumored to be leaving at the end of the year in favor of a move to McLaren, where he would rejoin former Peugeot colleague and compatriot Mikkel Jensen.

Vandoorne, who was brought back to Peugeot to effectively replace Jean-Eric Vergne after the Belgian driver’s intended move to Genesis fell through, meanwhile is expected to exit the team in order to race for Jaguar in FIA Formula E.

He would step up from his current reserve driver role at Jaguar to replace Mitch Evans — who, incidentally, is on his way to join the Stellantis-owned Opel squad in the all-electric series for 2026-27, as first reported by The Race.

On the other hand, Cassidy, Loic Duval and Paul di Resta are all likely to remain at Peugeot next year, while Vergne looks all but certain to return to the fold after a season of focusing on his Formula E commitments for sister brand Citroen.

Current reserve and development driver Alex Quinn also looks a strong bet to step up from his current role to a race drive in 2027.

Quinn, 25, is currently racing in LMP2 in both the European Le Mans Series with Nielsen Racing and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for CrowdStrike Racing by APR, with which he also contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans, winning the LMP2 Pro-Am division alongside George Kurtz and Laurin Heinrich.

Peugeot team principal Emmanuel Esnault told Sportscar365 in the build-up to this weekend’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo that he has been impressed with what he has seen from Quinn so far, saying “I think he’s ready” to race for the team.

“You can see the performance he delivers in IMSA,” said Esnault. “As a reserve driver working with us, he has demonstrated some great abilities.

“His ability to extract performance from the car [is impressive]. When we tested him in Portimao earlier in the season, his ability to be quite quick with the pace and consistency. He’s a great asset to our team.

“Now it’s for us to assess what we do with all of that and we try to build up our plan for 2027.”

While Vergne and Cassidy are set for double programs across WEC and Formula E with Stellantis, there are question marks over Pourchaire’s place in the Peugeot roster amid speculation linking him to the second seat at Opel in the latter series.

Having three of its six drivers also engaged in Formula E would be problematic for Peugeot due to the current two clashes with the WEC schedule.

Even if the conflict between the Monaco E-Prix and 6 Hours of Spa is resolved as expected, it would still leave it potentially short of a driver — and a reserve — for it to enter two drivers per car in the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo fixture that falls on the same weekend as Formula E’s visit to Shanghai in mid-July.

“It’s all part of the assessment we are working on to build the best [lineup] for next year,” said Esnault when asked how the clashes would impact Peugeot.

“Even if they are only six-hour races, it’s always good to have consistency with the lineup for the whole season, to always be together.”

Stephen Lickorish contributed to this report