Peugeot TotalEnergies has shown the first official pictures of their updated 9X8 for the FIA World Endurance Championship 2024.
The French manufacturer has come up with a new development of their radical design, that was first raced at Monza in July 2022.
90% of the bodywork has been changed, including adding a small rear wing. It’s not as predominant as on all the other Hypercars in the FIA WEC, but a small low one – a bit like on the old 905 model from the 90s.
The changes also includes a switch to 29 cm wide front tires, and 34 cm wide rear tires, just like all the other car manufacturers, no matter if they are built to the LMDh or LMH regulations, which Peugeot chose to build their car to, when it was announced back in 2019. They have run four similar sized tires on the car until now.
It’s predecessor was built after the theory of running without a rear wing, by generating enough ground effect under the car. But in real life, it turned out to be a very narrow operating window, where track conditions and temperatures etc was very critical. We saw the car work very well during parts of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2023, for some of Monza 2023, and at the opening round of the 2024 season in Qatar – but other than that, they have been generally been struggling to find pace.
They already made an upgrade during 2023, since the gear box had some reliability issues, and that upgraded helped them a lot, compared to the start in July 2022.
The team has chosen to change the layout of the car once again. After starting out in grey colors, they went into a multi coloured white and blue car for Le Mans 2023 and until now. The white base color has gotten some grey spots and a lot of kryptonite fluorescent colors.
The new Peugeot 9X8 will make its race debut at Imola on 21 April, when the second round of the FIA WEC 2024 will be run. Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne, and Nico Müller will be racing car #93, while Stoffel Vandoorne, Paul Di Resta, and Loic Duval will compete in car #94. Malthe Jakobsen continues to be the test- and reserve driver for the team.
