Peugeot “Underestimated” Gap Between Old and New 9X8

Peugeot Sport technical director Oliver Jansonnie admits that the French manufacturer was guilty of having “underestimated” the amount of time it needed to get up to speed with its heavily-revised 9X8 in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year.

After phasing out the original ‘wingless’ iteration of the 9X8 following the opening round of the season in Qatar, Peugeot initially struggled with the more conventional 9X8 2024 that made its debut in the second round at Imola.

The Stellantis brand endured a particularly difficult 24 Hours of Le Mans, failing to get a car in the top ten, before making progress in the second half of the season and rounding off the season with two top-four finishes in Fuji and Bahrain.

It left Peugeot sixth in the Hypercar manufacturers’ standings, behind newcomers Alpine and BMW but ahead of Cadillac.

Looking back on the season, Jansonnie conceded that the Peugeot look longer than expected to access the updated 9X8’s potential due to the car’s very different technical characteristics compared to its predecessor, which relied more on underfloor downforce and featured different tire dimensions.

“We probably underestimated the difference between the two cars, and what we have to learn again on this new car, which took us time,” Jansonnie told reporters in Bahrain.

“We are finally getting there and understanding the car better, and finding solutions for the issues we had with this car.

“It took more time than we expected, to be honest. We thought we could transfer much more from the old car, but it was pretty different.

“The strengths and weaknesses are the opposite of the previous car, and we had to develop on this basis. Finally we are getting a bit better at this.”

Jansonnie previously suggested that Peugeot could deploy additional Evo jokers for the start of the 2025 season, and the marque is thought to have evaluated parts for a potential update when it tested at Barcelona in October.

However, he reiterated that no final decision had been made, and believes there is still scope to improve Peugeot’s competitiveness with the car in its current state.

Complicating matters is the likelihood that it will no longer be possible to introduce Evo jokers mid-season from 2025, which would mean any update would need to be ready for the Qatar season opener in February.

“Running this car more and more on different tracks, we can now see where the weaknesses are, trying to bring solutions to that,” said Jansonnie.

“We have parts we tried in Barcelona, and that we will keep on trying until the end of the year, and it seems to be interesting in terms of performance.

“But it’s easy to make a mistake on this kind of thing and believe you have find a solution, which in the end you haven’t found, so you have to be cautious.

“You can’t bring a joker with very little in the pocket. You need to have something substantial that you believe in, and you are 100 percent sure is bringing performance.

“If you can’t be sure it’s bringing performance, there is no point.”

Asked what he felt was the 9X8’s biggest weakness in its current guise, Jansonnie replied: “We need a car that is much more consistent throughout the race.

“There is too much variation in car balance and performance depending on track conditions and tire wear. The car is very peaky to set up now.

“What’s complicated is to understand how to cure those issues, to develop solutions and make sure the solutions work as they should. We are in this process now.”

Jansonnie: Bahrain Peugeot’s Best Race of the Season

Peugeot finally scored a first podium with the new 9X8 2024 in the Bahrain season-closer with the No. 93 car of Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Mueller, who were promoted to third when the No. 51 Ferrari was disqualified from second place.

It followed a similarly encouraging showing in the previous round at Fuji, where the No. 93 crew finished fourth.

Jansonnie believes that the Bahrain race represented Peugeot’s best performance since the revised car was introduced, partly because the nature of the Sakhir track meant that expectations were relatively low.

“This race [in Bahrain] was probably the best one for us operationally,” he said.

“We could have done better in qualifying, but in the race we knew it was all about tire management, and we had to set ourselves targets for the beginning of the race and not follow people that we can’t follow, basically.

“We did that and we still stayed close. At no point of the race, we were not in danger of losing one lap, that was always under control. We used less tires than the others at the beginning, the drivers were instructed to look after the tires, and it worked.

“Yes, you need to be lucky with the safety car. But unless we did what we did at the beginning, we would not have benefited from it, so it’s not pure luck.”