A move that had been widely expected has been confirmed by Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie, who has revealed that the French manufacturer will race in the 2024 WEC curtain-raiser at Qatar in March with a car unchanged from the specification in which it contested last year’s season finale in Bahrain.
Jansonnie explained that the timing of the decision to undertake a radical overhaul of the avant-garde 9X8 with the swap from equal-size tyres on both axles to narrower fronts and wider rears meant that a debut at Qatar on 2 March had never been an option.
“We knew from the start that we couldn’t make it [the homologation of the revised car] in February,” he said.
“The reason is that with this homologation process, when you do a joker, you can’t just do half of the job, you have to do it fully, and that takes time to make sure you maximise the effect of your joker.
“We know that the level of competition was very high last year and will be even higher this year, so it is very important for us to bring something that is making a clear step forward in terms of performance.”
Source: Autosport