[WEC] Peugeot Sport returning to WEC

[Articus]

Nico deserves a chance at one of the leading hypercar teams. I suspect that the driver feels like he is waisting prime years with Peugeot so far.

[Matador]

Originally Posted by Articus

Nico deserves a chance at one of the leading hypercar teams. I suspect that the driver feels like he is waisting prime years with Peugeot so far.

What a thing it would be if Peugeot manage to sort their issues and understand their car over the winter and come out punching off the line next year.


Which of the top teams are looking for a driver though?

[tomcug]

Originally Posted by Matador

What a thing it would be if Peugeot manage to sort their issues and understand their car over the winter and come out punching off the line next year.

Atm sounds like a fan's dreams, nothing more. For example the 963 which, let's be honest, sucked in the first season still had flashes of pace in its first season and even led a race for 2/3 of its duration. So far nothing like that for the 9X8W and it doesn't even look like they're going forward significantly. Sure P8 at Sao Paulo was best result yet but it wasn't on pace, not at all. And they got beated by a Lambo at Le Mans.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Matador

What a thing it would be if Peugeot manage to sort their issues and understand their car over the winter and come out punching off the line next year.


Which of the top teams are looking for a driver though?

Reportedly Porsche.

[Gerard C]

He could join Pascal Wehrlein, EF world champion.
Hope they manage to sort their issues of course but they must prove it this year. And keep the good drivers they have atm.

[flatlandsman]

I think Aston will be looking for experienced drivers, I would guess they might run a Dane train team again, but there are several drivers who could run in their prototype.

Muller has to be a decent chance, Gounon aswell sort of same family, and he is one GT guy that really deserves a shot unless he is tied to Renault.

[tomcug]

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2024/...-for-2025.html
There's nothing official available but I wonder if this might be most expensive hypercar program of all manufacturers.

[Gerard C]

Not only expensive but time consuming too. I don't recall J-E Vergne speaking freely about the lack of performance. Far from the usual BS.

[Gerard C]

Brilliant weekend at CoTA for the # 93 finishing in the top 12. The end of the race was breathtaking, the french car overtaking any GT till the end. Way be we've been lucky enough to witness the transition from 505 to 205. With those people you never know!

[tomcug]

But at least one of the Alpines did very good

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by tomcug

But at least one of the Alpines did very good

Update: still valid! Mont Fuji Q: Peugeot secure the 14 th and 18 th place but at least the #93 Pug has been "faster" than the #36 Alpine. Baguette battle! I wonder if their CEO wants to sell car in Japan…

[tomcug]

As sad as it is, I don't think it's a surprise anymore to see Peugeot embarrass themselves on yet another track. Maybe in 2025 with even newer updates... maybe. But honestly this machine looks like it's beyond saving.

[Gerard C]

I fear we will never know what's happening there. My 2pcs is that there is no connection at all between the designers and the pit crew. Like a very complicated system delivered without the owners manual if this makes sense. That's why they've been putting so much pressure on the drivers' shoulders for a while, they need quite a lot of feedback. We have a proverb here sayin: if a chicken finds a knife he won't know what its for…

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

I fear we will never know what's happening there. My 2pcs is that there is no connection at all between the designers and the pit crew. Like a very complicated system delivered without the owners manual if this makes sense. That's why they've been putting so much pressure on the drivers' shoulders for a while, they need quite a lot of feedback. We have a proverb here sayin: if a chicken finds a knife he won't know what its for…

But why? It's an all a French project, no teams worldwide with different cultures.

[Gerard C]

I'd say its what we call "une voiture d'ingénieurs". Almost perfect on the paper and wind tunnel but when it comes to have proper suspension/aero settings, sht happens. Different depts of the same company totally unable to work together. This is French.

[JoeW04]

Doomed from the point they decided no rear wing, there is a reason why most the cars end up looking the same.

[S griffin]

Really Peugeot didn’t do their research. They need to go away and come back properly prepared next time

[flatlandsman]

I think as fans we can all agree we love cars that are out the box, I adored the Deltawing and the Nissan, I love seeing stuff like that, and in the past they might have worked, the Nissan I do not think was ever given enough of a chance, but this Peugeot has, it is clearly a flawed design on normal tracks, the only place it has worked remotely well is Qatar, a billiard table, the winged car hos not looked good anywhere as it is compromising the original design, never a good idea.

[tomcug]

The wingless car looked good at least in Qatar, Le Mans, Monza & partially in Bahrain (good 2022 performance and poor 2023 which was surprising). The winged car is good nowhere.

[S griffin]

It’s still nowhere near the requirement to be competitive with or without wings. As I said, they need to go away, rethink how they do things and come back with a car that’s much more competitive. They are wasting their time atm

[tomcug]

Originally Posted by S griffin

It’s still nowhere near the requirement to be competitive with or without wings.

It's not but the wingless was at least good somewhere. As flatlandsman said earlier, these cars are quite complex so it's not that you can slap a wing, take off some underbody aero and fix a broken design that way. They seem to be stubborn enough to continue trying this "fix" this Frankenstein tho. But maybe Peugeot should just ask ORECA to make a good car for them?

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by tomcug

It's not but the wingless was at least good somewhere. As flatlandsman said earlier, these cars are quite complex so it's not that you can slap a wing, take off some underbody aero and fix a broken design that way. They seem to be stubborn enough to continue trying this "fix" this Frankenstein tho. But maybe Peugeot should just ask ORECA to make a good car for them?

Yes, they didn’t think this through when building this car did they? And now they haven’t made progress. They would have been better off letting someone else like ORECA design the car for them yes

[FIRE]

They should return to wingless car and get Red Bull on board so they have wings if needed.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by tomcug

But maybe Peugeot should just ask ORECA to make a good car for them?

Or buy a second hand Isotta?

[DistortedSmile]

It's sad to see them struggling so much, the 908 wasn't always reliable but it was crazy fast, it took LMP1 cars years and becoming practically spaceships to finally beat their LM lap record, the 9x8 on the other hand is seemingly neither reliable nor fast.