Peugeot will go into the next year of the FIA World Endurance Championship slightly buoyed by the performance of its 9X8 hybrid in the final race of the 2022 season. At the eight-hour stint in Bahrain, Scotland’s Paul di Resta set fastest lap of the race, before retiring with a gearbox failure. The story of the race rather closely matches that of the season so far – flashes of promise and excitement followed by disappointment.
However, the team’s technical director, Olivier Jansonnie, remained optimistic after the retirement of one car in Bahrain, the other delayed by technical issues, saying this was still only the third race and the team is still learning how to set the car up, operate it properly, and then extract performance.
There is a lot to unpack from the first season of racing with the 9X8. The team tried to have the car ready for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, but then elected not to do so, instead focusing on testing as it knew it was not ready. Quite why the new race team did not compete in last year’s FIA WEC with an LMP2 car is not understood, but it was clear the team was not race ready, even when it did arrive in Monza in July.
Race debut
Little was expected of the car at the Italian race. Its 50 / 50 weight balance, with as much weight pushed forwards as possible in order to counterbalance the engine and gearbox, and the relaxed aero target figures allowed the team to run without a rear
