No plaid?
There has been real backlash from Pfaff Motorsports’ workforce since the decision was taken to compete with McLaren in IMSA next year without the team’s trademark plaid colour scheme!
The “No Plaid” email must have went to spam 🤷♂️#FueledByDriveway pic.twitter.com/FQ0LJj9ogF
— pfaffmotorsports (@pfaffmotorsport) November 22, 2023
New colours for WEC
The FIA WEC’s identity is set to change ahead of the 2024 season, with the championship adopting a new colour palette across its “branding and visual identity”.
DSC understands that the ELMS will undergo a brand refresh ahead of next season too.
Kappa becomes the official Le Mans outfitter
The Automobile Club de l’Ouest has announced that Italian clothing brand Kappa has become the official outfitter of the Le Mans 24 Hours, with a new three-year partnership that will run through to the 2026 event.
Permanent ACO staff members will sport Kappa clothing and the brand will design a new range of fan merchandise each year under the 24 Hours of Le Mans licence.
“We are proud to officialise our partnership with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the world’s greatest endurance race,” said Rémi Garnier, the country manager of Kappa France.
“It gives us great pleasure to strengthen our ties with the motorsport world and to pursue our commitment to the sector with a long-standing, iconic brand. The partnership gives us the opportunity to create unique collections for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, drawing on our respective brands’ identity to offer fans around the world garments they love to wear.
“We shall be the official supplier for ACO staff and look forward to engaging with race fans through our brands.”
Jansonnie on the 2024 9X8
Olivier Jansonnie, Peugeot Sport’s technical director (featured), has given more hints on the developments coming to the 9X8 for the 2024 FIA WEC campaign, in a post-season interview on the Peugeot Sport website.
The car is expected to be improved in multiple areas, with the team targeting performance gains. These improvements are believed to include the addition of a rear wing as part of a new aerodynamic concept for the car.
“There are three main pillars in our strategy: organisation, reliability, and performance. We improved a lot on the first two, so the main expectation for 2024 will be on the last one,” he explained. “This is also why we are undergoing new developments on the car, to go for a concept that will be closer to that of the other competitors.
“This will allow us to reduce the impact of the BoP defects by finding solutions similar to the competition. Today, that’s the solution that could help us to find a better level of performance, which is our main goal for the coming season.
“The second goal will be to capitalise on our level of reliability; due to the evolutions we are planning, we will take some technical risks that we will have to ensure are reliable. This is something that has to be done quickly, before the start of the season, to unlock the same reliability we had at the end of the 2023 season.
“This season we did not reach the level of performance we were expecting in 2023, nevertheless we improved a lot as a team. The team is ready for 2024 and if we manage to reach the level of performance we want we will be able to fight with the leaders in 2024.”
The car’s new aero concept is expected to debut on track in early December.
Reflecting on the tough 2023 campaign for Peugeot Sport, which netted just a single podium finish at Monza, Jansonnie also discussed the difficulties Peugeot faced with the Balance of Performance process.
“We identified a lack of performance on some technical items of the BoP (Balance of Performance) that were not compensated enough compared to the other competitors,” he said. “Our tyre fitting is specific and then so is our aerodynamic concept. Those two elements combined result in a lack of performance as they were not well evaluated in terms of BoP.
“Thanks to the amendments in the BoP throughout the season, we were able to have a slightly better performance, but it was not enough to fight for the victory with the other competitors of the Hypercar class. We did everything we could do and thanks to some race facts and a good strategy, like in Monza, we were at some point able to fight in the lead pack and get a few good results.”
Featured image courtesy of Peugeot Sport. Kappa and WEC logo images courtesy of the ACO and FIA WEC
