Category: Le Mans/WEC

After Alpine, Lamborghini and Isotta Fraschini debuted their brand new WEC Hypercars at the season-opener in Qatar last month, for this weekend’s race in Imola it’s Peugeot’s turn. With the 2024-spec 9X8 now homologated and ready to go following an extensive track test program that began last December, the French team is eager to show off the developments to its package, which it hopes will transform it from an also-ran to a contender.

With the 2024 9X8, Peugeot has moved away from its radical wingless design, which generated the bulk of its downforce via underfloor aero and switched to the now-standard Hypercar tire size, with narrower fronts and wider rears.

Rowing back on its initial concept was a major decision for Peugeot’s effort in the WEC, and left its engineering staff with a colossal task to complete in a matter of months. You could argue that choosing to conduct a ground-up redesign of this car was almost as bold and radical as its plan to compete in the WEC with such an unconventional design in the first place. 

After successfully campaigning to use a “Joker” upgrade this substantial following lengthy discussions with the rule-makers, the only carryover elements from the previous iteration are the tub, windscreen, air intake, cooling ducts, engine, gearbox and hybrid system. Practically every surface on the car is new – 90 percent to be more precise – resulting in a car that, upon closer inspection, looks and feels more like a traditional sports prototype than its predecessor.

Since it first hit the track last December, the new 9X8 has completed a whopping 15,000 kilometres of running at a number of circuits in Europe including Le Castellet, Portimao and Aragon. The focus throughout, Peugeot driver Loic Duval told RACER, was more on durability rather than performance.

The previous-gen 9X8, particularly early on, suffered from a suite of reliability woes. Over a series of small developments the major concerns, such as the issues stemming from the car’s gearbox, were solved. But it was never perfect. This left the team with a car that proved to be very track-sensitive and tricky to balance against the more conventional cars in the class via BoP. 

More often than not the original 9X8 flattered to deceive. It failed to win a single race and only briefly showed flashes of front-running pace, notably at Le Mans in changeable conditions, at Monza a month later and in its final outing at Qatar back in March before the lead car ran out of fuel while battling for the lead.

So, with the testing and development phase in the books and the car mere days away from its first race, the questions now are: Will this change in approach work and how quickly can the team get up to speed if this car proves to be a significant improvement?

On the reliability side of things, Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie wouldn’t go into detail but confirmed that testing had not been trouble-free. “But it never is,” he chuckled. “It’s a tough preparation that we are doing, endurance testing for about two days, with more track time than you would see at Le Mans, because the average track speed is not the same. 

“With that, you will find some issues, some small that you will fix easily, and some that require a bit more work. But generally, we are for sure better prepared than we were this time last year.”

Duval added that he too can’t say at this stage whether the car will prove to be bulletproof when it’s taken to the track in anger this Sunday for six hours on the tight, technical Imola circuit.

“We had many issues last year, then it was better in the second half of the season,” he reflected. “But a lot of resources have been put towards changing concepts. And because of that, we can’t put all our resources into fixing reliability problems. I can’t tell you that we won’t have issues, we are not in that position yet.”

However, where Peugeot and its driver roster are more confident is in the steps the car has made in drivability. RACER polled a selection of drivers quietly during the car’s testing phase and on the record today in Italy. The feedback was and continues to be universally positive in this area. 

Driver Mikkel Jensen, when asked about the magnitude of the changes in terms of the feel of the car, said: “It’s a big step. The rear of the car is more planted, we are not having to manage it as much on corner exit, we have more confidence in both the performance and in managing the tyres for longer.”

Jansonnie added that much of the progress comes via the change in tire size, which he feels cannot be overstated. “Everything was driven by the decision to change the tire size,” he said.

Duval echoed this, telling RACER that from a driver’s perspective it has had a “massive effect” on the car. 

“I really believed that last year’s tire size had a negative effect on traction. Now, you don’t overheat the tires and that means you feel more consistency,” he continued. “We have a bigger contact patch, which means we can carry more speed on entry and through corners and be more aggressive with the throttle. There is more compliance with the rear axle in general. The power delivery is the same, it’s just that you can use it better.

“However, one thing that is different is the activation of the hybrid system (the speed at which it kicks in and drives the front axle). It has changed from 130kph to 190kph like the others (using LMH chassis). Even though deployment at the front comes later on, you gain support from the tires at the rear.

“Overall the car is more predictable through stints, it suffers less of a drop in pace. And best of all it’s early, we still have a lot to learn with the car in terms of setup.”

He also revealed that the car’s previous issues in straight-line speed have been reduced too. This should stand the car in good stead for the most important race of the year at the Circuit de la Sarthe in June, a track that the 9X8 was strong at last year, leading a considerable chunk of the centenary Le Mans 24 Hours.

“It’s funny because even though we had no rear wing last year we discovered that we were slow in a straight line compared to our competitors,” he explained. “Last year we had a lot of drag, with big gurneys on the engine cover and behind the exhaust. They were not ideal.”

Where Peugeot now lags behind the competition, clearly, is race experience with the car. It hasn’t yet been able to focus on fighting for the final tenths in performance terms or analyze its performance up against the other cars in Hypercar. As such, expectations are being kept realistic for this weekend

“As a racer, I want to win and be on the podium,” Duval summarized. “But now with BoP, and the new car, I have no idea where we are. 

“We know we have made steps, we can compare this car with the old one in the same conditions. We are on the right path, but I don’t know how we will fare against the competition.”

On the ground at Imola ahead of what promises to be a landmark weekend for the FIA WEC, with a new venue and a record crowd (for WEC races outside Le Mans) expected, there are so many significant Hypercar storylines to track. One of them is whether or not Toyota can rediscover its 2023 form, which saw it win all but one of the races, setting the bar for the other factory teams to match.

A year on from its dominant start to last season and just one race into the current campaign, it’s already clear that the task at hand for the team is an unfamiliar one: rather than being chased, it is doing the chasing.

The team has returned with an almost entirely unchanged pair of GR010 HYBRIDs and finds itself racing as part of a larger and more experienced Hypercar field. As such, with BoP governing the class and a pair of new circuits to the championship placed at the start of the season, it will be the hardest-fought campaign yet for Toyota’s long-standing WEC program.

Speaking with RACER ahead of the track action this weekend, No. 8 driver Brendon Hartley agrees that it’s tough to predict how Toyota will fare at Imola, after a challenging week to kick off the WEC season in Qatar, where its GR010s ended off the podium in fifth and eighth. The question is whether or not that result was a blip. 

The Japanese-flagged team heads into this event, as it did at Qatar, with no prior testing at the circuit. And once again, this isn’t the case for everyone, as a number of teams have already tested at the fabled venue in preparation for its first WEC race, including Cadillac, Porsche, JOTA and Ferrari, who all expect to hit the ground running when track action starts tomorrow.

As a result, Hartley feels the team doesn’t yet have any expectations, though he is confident that the years of experience that the team has with the GR010 will enable it to get into a setup window “pretty quickly”. He is energized by the increased competition and prospect of returning to Imola, a circuit he hasn’t driven since his days racing for Murphy Prototypes in the ELMS’ LMP2 class aboard an ORECA 03 more than a decade ago.

“It’s a very tight track here for these big cars, but it should be a nice race here,” he says. “We didn’t test here, but in the sim it felt like such an enjoyable track to drive. It’s traditional, which I think is cool. It’s got so much character, you can really use the curbs and it’s up and down.

“Traffic is going to be one of the big topics. You’ll need to keep out of trouble because I am sure there are going to be incidents.

“A lot has changed to the sport since I last visited here, yet the circuit, aside from some new curbs, is pretty much identical.”

Looking back at the opening round of the season, Hartley was keen to point out how important it was that the team collected a decent haul of points with both cars despite being off the pace during the race. 

The expanded 19-car Hypercar class for this year means it has never been harder to score well and finish high up the order on weekends that don’t go to plan, simply because there are so many more cars in the class run by factories and top-quality privateers in the case of JOTA and Proton.

In what areas does he feel the Toyota team fell most short at the Lusail Circuit? Were the struggles down to BoP? Without directly saying it, Hartley hints that to a certain extent, this was the case. But he feels it was more than that. In part, Hartley says, the team felt hindered by the circuit type, as the GR010 tends to be at its best on bumpy circuits such as Sebring.

“It looked like we could challenge for Pole in Qualifying (in Qatar), but we definitely couldn’t get near that lap in the race whereas some of the others did,” he reflects.

“We salvaged points for the championship, which was key. But we didn’t have great pace. Some part of that was down to the track, but also we were the heaviest car, and if you keep adding weight to a car at some point the tires say ‘no’.”

He also feels that a year on from the first major influx of manufacturers to the top class, the gap between the new teams and Toyota on the operational side, has clearly shrunk.

“We’ve definitely been stronger at places like Sebring, and here at Imola, it’s much bumpier too, so it’s hard to predict,” he says. “What’s clear is that last year we set references on most tracks while our competition was taking steps along the way, and more steps over the winter months. We’ve seen that in Round 1, which is normal.

“We had an advantage last year, but the others have been catching us quickly. It’s going to be such a different track that it’s hard to read too much into the results at Qatar.”

Lucky for Toyota, characteristically, the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari is a totally different circuit to Qatar, and this should play into its hands. It’s an undulating track with plenty of bumps and narrow sections with limited runoff. The GR010, on paper at least, should feel more at home. 

As for BoP, there have been plenty of adjustments made to the table for the second event utilizing the revised system for 2024, with decisions made based on data gathered from the best car from each manufacturer in Qatar. Those performances have been averaged out to create a performance window. 

Now we wait to see what effect these tweaks will have on Toyota and the other manufacturers in the top class…

FIA WEC LMGT3 team AKKODIS ASP Team Lexus has announced that driver Kelvin van der Linde will miss the race at Spa-Francorchamps next month. The South African has been called up to race with ABT Cupra in the Formula E race in Berlin, which clashes with the Spa round. Though there is no official confirmation yet, the most likely scenario is that Toyota Gazoo Racing reserve driver Ritomo Miyata will take his place.

Miyata, a Super Formula and GT champion, is on-site in Imola for this weekend’s WEC race as part of his TGR role, fresh from winning the ELMS season opener in Barcelona last weekend with Cool Racing.

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Van der Linde will take the place of Nico Mueller in the Cupra team for two races. This frees up Mueller to compete with Peugeot in Hypercar.

“Nico is in extremely strong form at the moment, so of course it hurts a bit to be without him for two races. However, we don’t want to put any obstacles in the way of his parallel commitment to the WEC and have therefore given him the official go-ahead,” said ABT CEO and team principal Thomas Biermaier. “With Kelvin, we are in the fortunate position of having a driver who is familiar with Formula E, our team and the current generation of the race car and who has already completed three races for us — we are all looking forward to another weekend together.”

For its part, Peugeot has confirmed to RACER that with Mueller set to prioritize WEC over his Formula E commitments with Cupra, Peugeot has four drivers available and has opted to run at Spa with two drivers in each car.

Four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel completed his first run in a contemporary Hypercar on Tuesday, taking part in a successful test in a Porsche Penske 963 Hypercar at Motorland Aragon in Spain.

The former F1 star tested the car after an extensive sim session at the Porsche Penske Mannheim facility in Germany and a brief shakedown at the Weissach Development Centre last week.

In Spain, he completed 118 laps of the Spanish circuit and 581 kilometres across two fault-free double stints, The test, which is ongoing, is an endurance run for Porsche as part of its pre-Le Mans preparations. The running took place in the dry with tarmac temperatures between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius.

While there is no official news regarding a future WEC or IMSA drive with Porsche for Vettel, this test is a clear indication that the German ace is interested in a future sportscar program. Vettel has long been known to hold an interest in the Le Mans 24 Hours and was understood by RACER to have been engaged in talks with Porsche to sample the 963 prior to the 2024 Rolex 24 Hours in January.

“Of course, I also keep an eye on other motorsport disciplines and know many drivers who are active in the WEC and Le Mans. At some point, my curiosity was so great that I had the idea of trying it out myself. Porsche gave me the opportunity to test a current Hypercar with the 963,” Vettel said.

“After the seat adjustment, the simulator session and the roll-out in Weissach, I already had a good feeling. Driving the Porsche 963 on the track here in Aragon – that was definitely fun. I first had to get used to everything and find my rhythm. The driving experience is different simply because of the roof over your head, as well as dealing with the higher weight and the tires.

“The Porsche works drivers were very helpful and explained to me what was special and what I needed to get used to. That made it easy for me.”

Seven other Porsche works drivers will take part in the ongoing endurance test. Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki will share the No.5, while Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor will drive the No.6. They will be joined in Aragon by reigning DTM champion Thomas Preining.

“Aragon is one of the few places in Europe where we can run around the clock and gives us an opportunity to run 36 hours straight in preparation for Le Mans. The quite long back straight that gives us the top speed of more than 300 km/h we see on the Circuit des 24 Heures,” explained Jonathan Diuguid, Managing Director Porsche Penske Motorsport.

“Having Sebastian Vettel here is a unique opportunity for the team. He is a four-time Formula 1 world champion. He has extensive experience with hybrid systems and high-performance racing cars. Having his fresh unique perspective on where the car is and gives feedback on our systems and performances is a unique opportunity. We are happy to have him here. He came out of the car with a smile which is all good.”