Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie has revealed that the upgraded 9X8, which will sport a new aerodynamic concept and chassis modifications to allow Peugeot to move to a larger tyre size, will debut at round two of the 2024 FIA WEC season in Imola.
“We have put all of our focus in developing the new car, right now the main thing is to prepare for Qatar with the 2023-spec car, and we try to bring the new car in Imola,” he said on a call today with WEC media members.
“We are trying to go through the last parts of the aero homologation with the ACO and FIA and hopefully it will be ready on time for Imola.
“The time frame is trying to be ready to race in Imola, which means we have to finalise the homologation by the end of March.”
Jansonnie also explained due to the time it takes to design, develop and test upgrades ahead of re-homologating the car, Peugeot knew from the outset that debuting the upgrades would not be possible for the season opener in Qatar.
“You can’t just do half the job,” he explained. “You have to do it fully and that takes time. Make sure you maximise the effect of your joker.
“It’s very important for us that we can bring something that is making a clear step forward in terms of performance.”
While Jansonnie would not go into detail about the car seemingly running with a rear wing in its 2024-spec, he did stress how much of an impact changing tyre size would have. Currently, the 9X8 uses 31 (cm wide) tyres and will switch to the now standard 29 front, 34 (cm) rear tyres.
“We are trying to bring together a package with the new tyres, for the 2024-spec tyres. Most of the changes we’re making are just to accommodate the tyre dimensions,” he explained.
“First, we need to move the weight distribution on the car. Our car was designed to run at a very forward weight distribution because of the 31-31 tyres.
“We’ve got to move it back somehow, which means we need to have some lighter parts on the car, move some ballast over to try to move the weight distribution and then obviously retune the aero balance on the car.
“That’s the second biggest part of the package is to try to get an aero balance on the car that matches the new tyre dimension. Everything is actually driven by the tyre choice we are making now.”
This news comes after the new-look 9X8 was spied testing before Christmas at Paul Ricard in France.
