Lackluster Le Mans but optimism ahead for Peugeot

The 2026 Le Mans 24 Hours was a tough one for French brand Peugeot. Its 9X8s were off the pace throughout the event and struggled to make any impact in the race, finishing laps down in 11th and 12th.

But another disappointing performance on home soil with its LMH prototype is not going to deter the proud OEM from working to achieve its goals in Hypercar.

Olivier Jansonnie, the head of motorsport at Stellantis, admitted to reporters ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours that the current situation isn't good enough and reaffirmed that the team is continuing to push behind the scenes to improve its package for next season.

"We must deliver performance on track," he said. "We must evolve, we must change, we must basically be allowed to do an evolution of the car. So, for sure, we've been preparing this for some time now. And hopefully we should bring it on track next year. It's an evolution of the car. We will develop the car; that's what we're doing."

The 9X8 has been updated multiple times since its debut in the second half of the 2022 FIA WEC season, with Peugeot using up its allotted EVO 'Jokers' to widen the car's set-up window and change its aerodynamic philosophy. It has worked hard to improve the car's reliability too, though updates focused on safety and reliability do not count as 'Jokers'.

However, changes to the WEC Hypercar sporting regulations for 2026 have given Peugeot more leeway as it looks to upgrade the 9X8 once again for 2027. The rule states: “Additional Evolutions (EVO 'Jokers') can be granted for a demonstrated significant lack of performance as determined by the governing body."

Jansonnie, who said Peugeot plans to share more about the updates it has been working on "before next season", cited this rule change while detailing the current situation for the program and the car's roadmap.

"The rules have changed to allow these kinds of things (additional performance updates). That's exactly what they are doing. They will adapt the rules to be able to homologate cars. I think we are sharing the same facts that we are missing performance elements and we should be improved for next year."

Peugeot CEO Alain Favey was also at the media roundtable. He said he was misquoted when asked about his previous public comments regarding the possibility of Peugeot bringing an entirely new car in 2027.

"The car is called the 9X8, it will be called the 9X8 next year," he confirmed.

He also spoke about his general thoughts about the status of the 9X8 project going forward. Encouragingly, he stressed that Peugeot remains committed to the FIA WEC's top class until at least 2030 and that the WEC events prior to Le Mans showed encouraging signs for the 9X8's overall performance potential.

"What we're saying to these guys, and I actually said it this morning (race day at Le Mans), the whole team there is that we're committed," he said. "Peugeot is 216 years old. If we've managed to be existing for so long, it's also always because we've come out of difficult times and had better times and less good times, and it's been, it's been like that.

"But if anything, Peugeot is extremely resilient, and that's what we want to demonstrate, also in our involvement in the week, and in the month, definitely. So we confirmed that we would be part of the championship until 2029, in the knowledge that something would happen to the rules in 2030, and not knowing until today what these rules would officially be.

"It's difficult for us to project beyond 2030, but at least to have the certainty that, in 2029, we can with the current car and further evolutions, as we just discussed, we can continue to work on being more competitive; that for us is enough to justify staying for another three years now.

"We are waiting, and we are expecting to bring results at the level that are compatible with Peugeot's ambition," he continued. "Peugeot's ambition is not to be number 16, 17, 18 on the grid, definitely not. And actually, we were on pole position just a few weeks ago in Spa and close to the pole position in Imola. The kind of performance we brought in the first two races of the year is more what we're looking for than what we saw in qualifying here (at Le Mans), which was for all of us, of course, a disappointment.

"We are confident that based on what we've seen in these three races until now, we have enough ground to be optimistic about, you know, our capacity to bring in the next three years, four years, a performance that is more compatible with our ambition."