On July 10, Peugeot opened a whole new chapter in the famous endurance racing history when it made its Italian debut in the 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar (LMH), a game-changing design that brought a new understanding to motorsport. Encouraged by the potential of a homologated car, the two teams got used to the real racing environment and compared the 9X8 to other Hypercar racing cars in the championship.
The Peugeot Total Energies team did not take full advantage of the ten-minute qualifying laps in Italy, and the Peugeot 9X8 was not able to truly show its potential. Olivier Jansonnie has since focused on even more details with his team to optimize work on the car. They specifically focused on this issue during two special tests between Monza and Fuji. The team will be exploring the track for the first time in Japan, so they want to make the most of each track session from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon.
Peugeot Sport Technical Manager Olivier Jansonnie started his evaluation with the words “We needed that first race” and continued by saying, “We had our best in the tests. To accelerate our preparation and development, it is better to face our opponent directly on a real race-weekend. zamthe moment had come. We've gathered a lot of information about the vehicle and the team. We also ran into a few issues in testing that we hadn't encountered before. We fixed some of these on the spot. We have been working on some of them since Monza. It's a tried and tested process in motorsport. “We focused more on reliability and performance rather than developing racing strategies.” Underlining that the development process of the vehicle continues, Jansonnie said, “We should consider these processes as normal in a new project of this type against competitors with more than 10 years of experience. As Team Peugeot Total Energies, we are all very ambitious and we are aware that both the car and the team are in the development phase. However, we have not encountered any problems that we cannot solve yet,” he concluded.
The fifth leg of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship and the second show of the season for Team Peugeot Total Energies, the 6-Hour Fuji race is in many ways a completely different level of difficulty compared to Monza. Olivier Jansonnie and his team are well aware of this. The team knows it has to prepare itself for long-distance races like Fuji. They do not have regular facilities such as caravans and trucks used when racing in Europe.
The unpredictable weather conditions of the track and area, possibly heavy and prolonged showers, present many unknowns for Team Peugeot Total Energies, if not for the entire team. Some drivers have raced at Fuji in the past, including Jean-Éric Vergne and Gustavo Menezes. Loïc Duval and James Rossiter spent part of their careers in Japan. Of course, these experiences provide important gains. This experience complements the data obtained by the teams and engineers working in the simulator, who are trying to prepare well for the unique demands of the iconic Japanese circuit.
The fifth leg of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship, Fuji Speedway has a length of 4,56 km, 16 corners and a long main straight of 1,5 km.
Zammoment chart:
- Friday, September 9: 1st free practice, 05:00 CEST
- Friday, September 9: 2st free practice, 09:30 CEST
- Saturday, September 10: 3rd free practice, 04:20 CEST
- Saturday, September 10: Qualification 1, 08:40 local time / Qualification 2, 09:00 local time
- Sunday, September 11: 6 Hours Fuji, 05:00 CEST
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