Peugeot had a performance below expectations in the 2024 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Despite competing at home, none of their cars managed to enter the top 10 in the Hypercar category, facing a grid of 23 vehicles.
The team consisting of Stoffel Vandoorne, Paul di Resta, and Loic Duval finished in 11th place, while the car driven by Nico Muller, Mikkel Jensen, and Jean-Eric Vergne ended in 12th position, both vehicles two laps behind the winning Ferrari. Vandoorne stated that "we lacked speed throughout the race" and that the difficult conditions from the start kept them out of contention.
This performance contrasted sharply with their previous participation, where the earlier version of the 9X8 showed competitive pace and led the race at various stages, though it eventually fell back due to incidents and reliability issues.
Despite the lack of speed in 2024, Peugeot maintains that the development of the new 9X8, equipped with a rear wing and 31 cm wide tires, was the right decision. Technical director Olivier Jansonnie highlighted the new car's reliability as a significant improvement, despite the difficulties in terms of setup and performance.
"It was definitely the right choice to develop this car," commented Jansonnie. "We struggled with the setup and pace because the car is fundamentally different from the previous one. However, the reliability was excellent, which now allows us to focus on improving performance for future races."
Peugeot had previously argued that the new 9X8 was designed to be competitive on a variety of tracks, without relying on the Balance of Performance (BoP) to compete with established competitors. The previous 9X8 was fast on certain tracks, including Le Mans, but not as competitive elsewhere.
In the final stages of Le Mans 2024, Peugeot was overtaken by Lamborghini, a new entrant in the category. The #63 Lamborghini of Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat, and Edoardo Mortara managed to take the tenth place from the #94 Peugeot in the last hour of the race. Jean-Marc Finot, head of Peugeot Motorsport, explained that a slow zone allowed Lamborghini to make a faster pit stop, giving them the advantage over Peugeot.
Finot explained: "We had good pace compared to Lamborghini, but we lost 40 seconds in a slow zone when Lamborghini was in the pits. This allowed them to pass us in the final standings".
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