Peugeot’s Théo Pouchaire has confirmed that he will not return to a race seat with the French manufacturer’s Hypercar programme in 2027, as the 23-year-old focuses on his new drive with Opel in Formula E.
Pourchaire joins Malthe Jakobsen and Stoffel Vandoorne as confirmed departures from the French marque, which is set to welcome Robert Shwartzman and a returning Jean-Éric Vergne alongside the recently-introduced Alex Quinn next season.
“Next year I will be in Formula E,” Pourchaire told reporters, including DSC, at Monza this evening. “Maybe one day we’ll see if I can do both [Formula E and FIA WEC], but next year it’s going to be Formula E.”
This therefore means that the Frenchman will put a pause on his time in Hypercar after just a single season, where he has shared the #94 9X8 with Jakobsen and Loïc Duval.
“I think I’ve learned a lot because it was my first proper year in a professional racing driver role with the manufacturer as an official driver,” Pourchaire reflected on his campaign to-date.
“I learned a lot, working with engineers and my teammates, and I think it was positive. Even if the results were difficult, I think it was positive for myself because I proved that I was able to be really quick within the team, push the limits, and show that I belong.”
Pourchaire is also keen to reaffirm that, in the long-term, he would like to return to Peugeot’s FIA WEC programme. The door remains open given Opel and Peugeot are both part of the Stellantis family, with their respective FIA World Championship race programmes based under the same roof.
“I would be super happy to continue with Peugeot as well one day because racing for a French manufacturer in the 24 hours of Le Mans is something I cannot really miss,” Pourchaire said.
“So we’ll see. It would be cool to at least race again in Le Mans, because that’s the highlight of the year.”
As Pourchaire alluded to, Peugeot TotalEnergies has endured a difficult 2026 campaign, but team principal Emmanuel Esnault is optimistic that the French marque can end the season on a high with the characteristics of Monza suiting the 9X8.
“The target we have is to have our best car in in the top five,” Esnault stated, setting the bar one position higher than Peugeot’s best result so far this season.
“Our car is strong on braking, with lots of stability and braking power, and here the average minimum speed on corner is 150 kph. We think that could put us in a better position compared to Barcelona, where it’s higher radius corners and with a higher minimum speed.”
Esnault also explained why the team elected to run Quinn in both of the final two races following Vandoorne’s departure at the end of September, as opposed to also giving Shwartzman an early debut.
“We think that the the step to make for Alex is proportionally maybe a bit higher coming from LMP2,” he said.
“For him it’s his first experience in working with a wider organisation compared to an LMP2 team. Robert has known it in IndyCar and as a reserve driver in F1. He’s got a different level of experience, so we think we had more to gain in putting Alex in for the last two rounds of the season.”
Images courtesy of Peugeot Sport and Andrew Lofthouse
