- Having accomplished a number of thousand miles of checks, Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies is delighted to unveil the 2024 PEUGEOT 9X8, which is able to make its aggressive debut on the 6 Hours of Imola on the 21 of April, spherical two of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship.
- In order to take advantage of adjustments to the laws that enable groups to deploy a simpler tyre set-up utilizing completely different widths on the entrance (29cm) and rear (34cm), the PEUGEOT Sport workforce has tailored the aerodynamics of the PEUGEOT 9X8, while preserving 90% of the bodywork, which now includes a rear wing.
- For the third yr working, PEUGEOT Design and PEUGEOT Sport have labored collectively to give you a really particular livery, designed solely by PEUGEOT’s in-house groups. The model’s emblematic Lion – a logo of velocity, flexibility and energy – lies on the coronary heart of the design.
After a primary full season within the FIA World Endurance Championship, together with an encouraging efficiency at Le Mans 24H and a maiden podium (3rd) at Monza, and having spent a lot of the opening race of the 2024 season on the entrance in Losail, the PEUGEOT 9X8 has been fitted with a number of substantial upgrades because it seems to be to play a number one function this yr in what is ready to be an extremely aggressive Hypercar class that includes 9 producers and nineteen prototypes.
In its preliminary model, the PEUGEOT 9X8 was designed utilizing a set of specs that met the technical laws drawn up in 2020/2021. However, between the design part of the automobile and its aggressive bow in the summertime of 2022, the laws modified, opening up the potential for bettering efficiency in sure areas. Some design settings had been due to this fact revised in an effort to maximise the potential and meet the formidable targets set by Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies.
“We made choices that are no longer the right ones now and this difference in performance was not sufficiently offset by the BOP (Balance of Performance) in 2023,” defined Olivier Jansonnie, Peugeot Sport Technical Director. “The idea was, therefore, to go back to a car design that is similar to that of our rival’s car design, so that it would then be given equivalent treatment by the BOP. This is why we decided to drop the use of identical 31/31cm tyre widths on all the wheels, choosing to fit 29cm tyres at the front and 34cm tyres at the rear. Strictly speaking, it’s not a new car, as it has the same chassis, but there are a lot of upgrades. For the tyres to work effectively, we had to alter the centre of gravity of the PEUGEOT 9X8, which meant moving certain components and working to make others lighter. In order to have a better aerodynamic balance, we also had to look at redistributing the aerodynamic loads, which resulted in us redesigning approximately 90% of the bodywork components, most notably adding the rear wing. As well as all this, we decided to use this new homologation to add some reliability and performance upgrades to give us the best opportunities in the championship.”
The choice was taken in March 2023 to introduce some radical upgrades to the automobile for the 2024 season. Everyone at PEUGEOT Sport labored tirelessly to revamp the automobile concurrently participating within the 2023 WEC marketing campaign. “It was a project within a project, which increased the team’s workload substantially,” continued Olivier Jansonnie. “But we were able to rely on the unwavering commitment of Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies and we’re now really looking forward to showing off the result of their hard work. The target is clearly to get back among the frontrunners, fight regularly for podiums and even challenge for race wins.”
These upgrades additionally offered a possibility to pursue the working relationship begun 4 years in the past with PEUGEOT Sport: “After an elegant, understated design to mark PEUGEOT’s return to Endurance racing in 2022, then the 2023 livery produced by the visual artist Demsky, celebrating both the Centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 30th anniversary of PEUGEOTt’s one-two-three at Le Mans 24H, this time we came up with a design that deploys the ‘Lion Head’ in different scales,” detailed Matthias Hossann, PEUGEOT Brand Design Director. ”This graphic design, symbolising a ‘Pack Of Lions’, conveys the sense of collective that displays the values of endurance racing completely.
We needed to focus on this workforce spirit and the wealth of expertise within the workforce. The design is produced in several sizes and completely different colors taken from the PEUGEOT Sport color chart, together with black, gray, white and kryptonite. This theme is equally deployed on the approach to life merchandising merchandise developed by PEUGEOT’s graphic design workforce.”
After making its ultimate look on the Qatar 1812km, the opening spherical of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, which confirmed the progress made by Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies, the 2023 model of the PEUGEOT 9X8 is now set to make manner for the 2024 model on the 6 Hours of Imola, spherical two of the FIA WEC season, on 21 April. It was, after all, at Imola’s Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari that PEUGEOT scored a surprising one-two end again in 2011.
Linda Jackson, Brand Chief Executive Officer of PEUGEOT, mentioned “2023, the first full year of Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, was a rewarding experience for everyone involved as the team took shape, and showed its determination and passion, even though there were difficult times. For 2024, the target is still the same, to win races! We know that the competition will be even tougher this year but our team has worked very hard to develop a 2024 version of the PEUGEOT 9X8 that reflects the values of the brand perfectly. The energy and effort put in by Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies have been invaluable. We are proud to be part of this new era in Endurance racing and we want to leave our mark on the sport.”
Jean-Marc Finot, Stellantis Motorsport Senior VP
“First and foremost, I would like to congratulate and thank the entire PEUGEOT Sport team for its excellent work. It really is no small feat to have been able to redesign part of the car in record time whilst managing to compete in the 2023 season. The PEUGEOT 9X8 was originally designed to meet the 2020/2021 regulations when the LMHs had to be fitted with equally sized tyres at the front and rear. The regulations have evolved since, enabling some of our rivals to fit larger tyres at the rear. We had thought that the BoP would be enough to offset our structural design handicap, but this has not been the case. It was therefore necessary to redesign part of the car to adapt it to the new tyre dimensions. We had to shift the car’s centre of gravity, alter the distribution of the aerodynamic loads, add a rear wing, produce lighter components, and so on. Our simulations and initial track testing sessions have shown that the car has more performance. We therefore hope to stay among the frontrunners without however getting close to the BoP limit, with minimum weight and maximum power.”
Peugeot Sport information
Find all the newest information about Peugeot Sport on its new web site (www.peugeot-sport.com) and on the next platforms:
Twitter: @peugeotsport
Facebook: @peugeot.sport
Instagram: @peugeotsportofficial
YouTube: Peugeot Sport Official
Discover our final preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr6rZlMVAV0
Discover the brand new press package: right here
Media website/Photos/Video: https://www.media.stellantis.com/em-en/peugeot-sport
Peugeot Sport WEC Media Contacts:
Justine Morice / justine.morice@external.stellantis.com / +3376262287
Sonya D’Artois / sonya.dartois@external.stellantis.com / +33627816828
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