With months of intense development work and 15,000 kilometres of track testing complete, Peugeot’s 2024 9X8 is ready to race. The French factory team is eager to show off the developments to its Hypercar challenger, which it hopes will change its fortunes.
The redesign moves away from its wingless concept, which generated the bulk of its downforce via its underfloor and sees its weight distribution shifted and tyre size switch to the standard in Hypercar, with narrower fronts and wider rears.
The only carryover elements from the previous iteration are the tub, windscreen, air intake, cooling ducts, engine, gearbox and hybrid system. 90 per cent of its surfaces have changed, resulting in a car that, upon closer inspection, looks and feels more like a traditional sports prototype than its predecessor.
So what can we expect from the car at this early stage?
Throughout the car’s European test programme, which featured visits to Le Castellet, Portimao and Aragon, the focus throughout, Peugeot driver Loic Duval told DSC, was more on durability rather than performance.
The previous-gen 9X8 suffered from a suite of reliability woes, particularly early on. Via a series of small developments the major concerns, such as the issues stemming from the car’s gearbox, were solved. But there were still areas that needed work.
It was a car that appeared to be very track-sensitive and tricky for the rule-makers to balance against the more conventional cars in the class via BoP. It flattered to deceive with brief flashes of pace, notably at Le Mans in changeable conditions, at Monza a month later and in its final outing at Qatar earlier this year. But there was never any consistency and the team was left with little show for its efforts by the end of its first full season.
On the reliability side of things, Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie wouldn’t go into detail when speaking with the media yesterday, but admitted that testing with the new 9X8 had not been trouble-free. “But it never is,” he said.
We are better prepared than we were this time last year
“It’s a tough preparation that we are doing, endurance testing for about two days, with more track time than you would see at Le Mans, because the average track speed is not the same.
“With that, you will find some issues, some small that you will fix easily, and some that require a bit more work. But generally, we are better prepared than we were this time last year.”
Duval added later that he too can’t say at this stage whether the car will prove to be ‘bulletproof’ when it’s taken to the track in anger this Sunday for six hours on the tight, technical Imola circuit.
“We had many issues last year, though it was better in the second half of the season,” he added. “But a lot of resources have been put towards changing concepts. And because of that, we can’t put all our resources into fixing reliability problems. I can’t tell you that we won’t have issues, we are not in that position yet.”
However, this is a car that has taken significant strides in drivability. Throughout the testing phase, the feedback DSC received in the background from its drivers was universally positive in this area. The only real frustration was that the team would have to wait until after the opening round of the 2024 season to finally race it.
Driver Mikkel Jensen, when asked about the magnitude of the changes in terms of the feel of the car, said: “It’s a big step. The rear of the car is more planted, we are not having to manage it as much on corner exit, we have more confidence in both the performance and in managing the tyres for longer.”
The tyre size change, Jansonnie stressed yesterday at the car’s media launch, is a major improvement. “Everything was driven by the decision to change the tyre size,” he emphasised.
Duval echoed this, telling DSC that from a driver’s perspective, it has had a “massive effect” on the way the 9X8 feels on track.
The power delivery is the same, it’s just that you can use it better
“I really believed that last year’s tyre size had a negative effect on traction. Now, you don’t overheat the tyres and that means you feel more consistency,” he continued.
“We have a bigger contact patch, which means we can carry more speed on entry and through corners and be more aggressive with the throttle. There is more compliance with the rear axle in general. The power delivery is the same, it’s just that you can use it better.
“However, one thing that is different is the activation of the hybrid system (the speed at which it kicks in and drives the front axle). It has changed from 130 kph to 190 kph like the others (using LMH chassis). Even though deployment at the front comes later on, you gain support from the tyres at the rear.
“Overall the car is more predictable through stints, it suffers less of a drop in pace. And best of all it’s early, we still have a lot to learn with the car in terms of set-up.”
He also revealed that the 9X8’s straight-line speed, or lack of it, isn’t as much of an issue now either. Crucially, this should stand the car in good stead for the most important race of the year. At the Circuit de la Sarthe during the centenary Le Mans 24 Hours last June the 9X8 looked at home, fighting at the front of the field and leading a considerable chunk of the race.
“It’s funny because even though we had no rear wing last year we discovered that we were slow in a straight line compared to our competitors,” Duval explained. “Last year we had a lot of drag, with big gurneys on the engine cover and behind the exhaust. They were not ideal.”
Where Peugeot now lags behind the competition, clearly, is race experience with the car. It hasn’t yet been able to focus on fighting for the final tenths in performance terms or analyse its performance up against the other cars in Hypercar. As such, expectations are being kept realistic for this weekend
“As a racer, I want to win and be on the podium,” Duval summarised. “But now with BoP, and the new car, I have no idea where we are.
“We know we have made steps, we can compare this car with the old one in the same conditions. We are on the right path, but I don’t know how we will fare against the competition.”
Images courtesy of Jakob Ebrey Photography & Peugeot
