The Peugeot TotalEnergies team's two Peugeot 9X8 Le Mans hypercar prototypes will race for the first time on July 10, 2022, at the fourth round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship in Monza, Italy (FIA WEC). Building on the success of the Peugeot 905 (which ran on gasoline and had a V10 engine from 1990 to 1993) and the Peugeot 908 (which ran on diesel and had an HDI FAP V12 engine from 2007 to 2011), Peugeot is back on the market with a hybrid vehicle endurance racing that shows its strategy for electrification. Everyone on the team is excited to learn as much as possible from this first competition.
The Peugeot 908's story began in April 2007 when it won its first race in the LMP1 category at the 1,000 km of Monza. A decade and a half later, on July 10, 2022, the Peugeot 9X8 will race in the Le Mans Hypercar class at the Six Hours of Monza. The well-known track will also be the setting for this race.
Team PEUGEOT TotalEnergies has been doing a lot of testing over the past six months at different European tracks to prepare for this first race. In the past few weeks, the schedule has been carefully tweaked. The first step was to use a simulator at the Peugeot base in Satory, which is close to Paris. This gave the team a chance to evaluate and improve the energy management mapping for Monza while the drivers got used to the track's unique requirements and characteristics. After that, the Peugeot 9X8 finished its 15,000th kilometer at MotorLand Aragón in Spain, the Peugeot TotalEnergies team's finish line before Monza.
As part of this test, the two racing crews, made up of drivers, engineers, and mechanics, were put through a tough 36-hour endurance run. At the same time, the people in charge of the two Peugeot 9X8s with the starting numbers 93 and 94 knew the race course very well.
After the success of Peugeot 905 and Peugeot 908, Peugeot Sport is ready to write a new chapter in the history of endurance racing. Even though the goal is still to win, this sports program is unique because it uses new ways of working that the brand has already tried and tested. It is also a significant technological challenge and shows how committed Peugeot is to the energy transition.
The Peugeot 9X8 and a new racing team were put together in just a year and a half. At the same time, hard work was done on the track and in the workshop to prepare and practice. Now, the team is ready to compete against other prototypes and units with more experience in this field.
It's time to turn the work done, testing, and simulating into real life. In the past few months, the PEUGEOT TotalEnergies team has grown more robust, and everyone on the team is excited to learn about or remember the competition. The upcoming races will give the team a chance to learn a lot of important information that will be used to improve the Peugeot 9X8 in the future. This information is also helpful for optimizing performance and making things more efficient with a long-term goal in mind, like playing in the 2023 season.
Olivier Jansonnie, Technical Director of Peugeot Sport, said, "After an extensive and necessary period of testing and development, during which we covered thousands of kilometers on different circuits, the Peugeot 9X8 and its teams are now ready to take on the next challenge: the high demands of a race weekend in direct competition with our competitors and at the same time learn how the Peugeot 9X8 behaves in traffic and the safety measures." Our plan for Monza is straightforward: we want to always do our best while being humble and sure of ourselves. Our goal is clear: in a competitive setting, we want to learn as much as we can about every part of the Peugeot 9X8. We're excited to see how we stack up against the other teams and vehicles.
A hybrid hypercar with all-wheel drive that has a hybrid drive (2.6-liter V6 bi-turbo combustion engine with 500 kW and two electric motors on the front axle with 200 kW each) and a high voltage battery (900 V).
The Peugeot 9X8 racing car and the brand's endurance racing program are based on the company's three core values: eye-catching design, a love of racing, and the best technology available. The Peugeot 9X8, released on July 10 in Monza, is an example of the company's electrification strategy. It shows that PEUGEOT is an expert in this field and that the company is committed to putting out new electric technologies in all of its road vehicles.
"The competitive debut of the Peugeot 9X8 marks the end of the first phase of our mission," said Jean-Marc Finot, who is in charge of Stellantis Motorsport. Team Peugeot TotalEnergies gave us all the technology and know-how we needed to build a team and an LMH hypercar that can compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Monza is beginning a new era for Peugeot Sport in endurance racing. Our goal is to win races while showing off Peugeot's electric technology. This weekend in Italy, we'll compete against people who have done much work in this category. So we are realistic about the challenge but driven by determination, enthusiasm, and ambition!"
