No wing and a prayer: Peugeot’s radical Hypercar at the crossroads

A year on from the race debut of the Peugeot 9X8, it feels like the French manufacturer’s Hypercar program has reached a crucial moment as the FIA World Endurance Championship returns to Monza.

It hasn’t been a comfortable 12 months for Peugeot in the WEC. A lack of outright pace and reliability woes have left little to show for the team’s efforts. There have been no wins, pole positions or even a podium place as part of a top class that has been steadily growing in quality and size.

The 9X8’s aerodynamic concept, which relies on its ability to generate the bulk of its downforce through its underfloor, has been a topic of discussion since the car’s public debut. Its powertrain — which initially featured a gearbox that shifted electronically and proved to be notoriously unreliable — has too. However, with the end of its first full season with the car in sight, the mood surrounding the program appears to be shifting and things appear to be turning around.

As a whole, the 9X8 has been steadily improving as a package, with a new hydraulically activating gearbox proving to be a significant step forward in terms of reliability. The outright performance of the car is gradually being unlocked too. Its test program before and during this season, which included two significant visits to Paul Ricard and Magny Cours before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, has been hugely beneficial. Nevertheless, the team was playing down prospects prior to the WEC’s signature race.

“We have to be humble,” driver Gustavo Menezes told RACER before the French endurance classic last month. “Toyota didn’t show up and win in their first year. Peugeot didn’t in LMP1 with the 908 either, and they finished on top in the end. We just have to keep working, but I am genuinely confident we will get there in the end.”

To the surprise of many, though, Peugeot’s 9X8s were in the mix up front at Le Mans, with the No. 94 leading the race overall into the night.

An off at the first Mulsanne Chicane before midnight ended the car’s chances of victory, but there were clear signs that the 9X8 could become a race winner in this BoP-governed category. It simply looked more at home at La Sarthe, the most important location on the calendar. The two 9X8s made it to the finish eighth and 12th overall and, until both cars hit trouble in the closing hours of the race, ran reliably. Now, Peugeot is looking to build on that progression this weekend in Italy.

“We thought that we might have small issues at Le Mans, so it was positive that we were mostly reliable,” Loic Duval, who shares the team’s No. 94 with Menezes and Nico Müller, told RACER. “I wouldn’t say it was surprising, but it was positive. It was encouraging that the car worked in the wet conditions and in the dry too. We can expect another step here (at Monza) because we ran here last year and we worked through problems with car behavior. I don’t think we will be able to fight with the best teams, but we will get closer.

“I think our best opportunities will be at Fuji and Bahrain,” Duval reckoned. “The nature of the circuits and the BoP we have seen for those races shows us that if there is a bigger opportunity it will be there.

“At Monza, you rely on straight-line speed and getting traction on curbs. Because we have different-sized tires to everyone else, traction is always a question mark ao we are not sure where we are going to be. So on pure performance, Fuji and Bahrain will probably be our best chances.”