Vandoorne relishing updated Peugeot 9X8 WEC challenge

The No.93 Peugoet driven by Jean-Eric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen and Nico Mueller was set for a best ever result of second place at the Qatar 1812kns race last month, until it was cruelly denied after a fuel issues in the dying stages of the race.

Peugeot TotalEnergies has been working flat-out since the end of last season developing new parts for its Hypercar and it recently completed a major test at Paul Ricard in readiness for the first public outing of for the upgraded 9X8.

Among the impressive squad of Peugeot drivers is Stoffel Vandoorne, who was drafted in to the team at the end of the 2022 season as a race driver, sharing the No.94 9X8 with di Resta and Loic Duval.

Vandoorne talked to fiawec.com at Imola outlining some of the differences that he is feeling from the cockpit of the new-look Hypercar model.

“To be honest the car changed much more than I actually anticipated,” said Vandoorne

“Ok, you have to divisible things, which are the rear wing and the tyres but that also brings a lot of other implications like the weight distribution and actually the whole bodywork shape is a bit different.

Vandoorne also detailed some of the learnings that are required when the development process is on-going and how they might manifest themselves in race combat.

“You don't actually always see these things up close, let's say, but under the covers there's quite a lot of a lot of a lot of new parts, a lot of new bits that have been developed,” he said.

“Clearly from testing the car is a step forward, it's definitely faster than the previous one, and it felt much more like an actual racecar.

“The previous iteration of the 9X8 worked well in certain conditions, Qatar was a good example of that when it's a super smooth and a flat and flowing track. That was kind of the optimal conditions for it.

“There was obviously a lot of benefits from what we've done so far. There's also some challenges especially with the smaller front tyres, that makes front locking a little bit more difficult. With our rear axles it seems better now and it's changing that a little bit more to the front compared to the last car.”

As well as the range of work that Vandoorne and his teammates will have to tick off in free practice over the coming days, they will also have to absorb the challenge of the narrow and no-margin-for-error nature of the undulating Imola circuit.

“It's a new track for most of us, so we haven't been testing here only Paul (di Resta) has driven some laps here in an LMP2 car,” said the Belgian.

“We've obviously got quite a lot of a lot of knowledge from simulators on boards and stuff but it's kind of the complete contrast to Qatar as its narrow bumpy, a lot of high kerbs, slower corners, so it's definitely going to be kind of a learning curve for us.

“Traffic is going to be it's going to be a big challenge. In Qatar it was wide open spaces but  here at Imola there's limited space, the walls are quite close, maybe a bit of rain as well, so we will see how that will pan out. But I don't think this will be just a straightforward green flag race, let's say.”