Peugeot evaluates further hypercar upgrades for 2025 WEC season

Peugeot is considering further upgrades to its Le Mans Hypercar in 2025 as it looks to close the gap on the World Endurance Championship leaders.

The French manufacturer wants to have a full picture of the potential of the updated 9X8 2024 before the end of the current season, in order to determine whether more evo jokers should be used next season.

When asked what Peugeot needs to do to improve its position in the hypercar class, the brand’s technical director Olivier Jansonnie said: “We are looking at the performance of the car now, but until you find something (major) it is always difficult to know what needed to be improved.

“We are looking at different things: we have evaluated the car and started to identify so many things that need to be improved, especially the last two races were very relevant for that.

“Part of it is certainly the set-up, which we can fix, and once we have a clear picture of what we can’t fix with the set-up, then ultimately we’ll have to look at evolutions and wild cards.”

He added: “It’s only when you’re at the point where you reach the point that you can see what you’re missing and when it’s time to evolve in terms of technical package, wildcards and homologation.”

Peugeot has implemented the first of five evo joker performance upgrades it will receive during the 9X8 LMH’s initial five-year lifecycle, ahead of its first full season in the WEC in 2023.

#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, Jean-Eric Vergne

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

How much of the allocation has been used has not been disclosed. The use of evo jokers is not in the public domain and is not shared with manufacturers by the series rules makers.

It’s unclear whether this includes the switch from equal-sized wheels and tires all around to narrower front wheels and wider rear wheels that was central to the 2024 makeover.

Toyota made the same switch from 31cm tyres to 29 and 34cm for the GR010 HYBRID LMH between the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

The company successfully argued that the switch was necessary as a result of the reduction in the minimum weight in LMH, which followed the convergence process to allow LMDh machines into the WEC.

Evo Jokers must be requested from the regulators, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the FIA, and are allowed at their discretion.

Although the 2024 upgrade represented a major change in concept, the new 9X8 has finished no higher than eighth in the five races it has contested so far. The previous version of the car achieved a podium finish at Monza in 2023.

Jansonnie said it has yet to be decided at what point Peugeot could use evo-jokers to introduce new parts to the car if it decides to go that route. However, he did not rule out the 2025 season starting with the new version at the end of February.

“It’s open again,” he said. “We’re looking hard at what can give us performance. So depending on the findings that we make between now and the end of the year, we’ll decide what to do.”

When asked whether Peugeot would make minor adjustments to the car or implement major upgrades, Jansonnie declined to comment on the extent of the changes.

“It’s impossible to say until we have the full picture,” he said. “It’s got to be some kind of balance between how long can we wait before we do something and how much can you gain by doing something quickly. It depends on what we find on the rails next month (in testing).”

Jansonnie added that “the goal is to have a clear picture by the end of November,” while the “type” of the update will also help determine the full timeline of the upgraded car.

“You have some quick and easy things that you can design in a couple of weeks, produce the parts in three to four weeks and test them, if you’re 100 percent sure about what you’re doing,” he said.

“That’s a two- to three-month turnaround. There are other options that could take much longer. It’s impossible to answer.”