Fuji-bound: Team Peugeot TotalEnergies heads to Japan
FROM MONZA TO FUJI
On July 10, the start of a new chapter was written in PEUGEOT’s illustrious endurance racing history when the firm’s 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) made its maiden public appearance in Italy.
“We needed that first race,” observes Peugeot Sport Technical Director Olivier Jansonnie. “We had achieved as much as we could in testing so, in order to ramp up our preparations and development, it was time to pitch ourselves directly against our opposition in a true race-weekend environment.”
Encouraged by the potential of a car whose homologation is now fixed (meaning that any further modifications will be strictly limited and regulated), the two driving crews were able to acclimatise to racing in traffic and compare the 9X8 to the championship’s other Hypercars.
“We collected a great deal of information about the car and team. We also ran into a few problems that we hadn’t previously encountered in testing, some of which we were able to rectify on-site, others that we have been continuing to work on since Monza. This is a tried-and-tested process in motorsport. At this early stage, it should be noted that we are concentrating more on reliability and performance than on refining race strategies. That is perfectly normal for such a new project, up against rivals with – in some cases – more than ten years’ experience in the discipline. We are all fiercely competitive here at Team Peugeot TotalEnergies and we recognise that both the car and team have scope for significant improvement, but we have yet to come across any issues that we cannot resolve, so that’s very positive.”
Disappointed that Team Peugeot TotalEnergies was not able to take full advantage of the ten-minute qualifying session in Italy to properly demonstrate the PEUGEOT 9X8’s potential, Olivier Jansonnie has since gone into even greater detail with his team in order to optimise its work on the car with the clock ticking down. It focused particularly hard on this aspect during two private tests carried out between Monza and Fuji. “In Japan, we will be discovering the circuit for the first time, so we need to make sure we maximise every on-track session from Friday morning through to Sunday afternoon,” he underlines.
PREPARING FOR FUJI’S TRADEMARK CHALLENGES
The 6 Hours of Fuji – Round 5 of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign and second appearance of the season for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies – poses an altogether different challenge to Monza in a number of ways – a consideration not lost on Olivier Jansonnie and his squad: “For long-haul events like this, we need to adapt our procedures because we do not have the same regular facilities at our disposal – like motorhomes and trucks – as we do when we race in Europe.”
The circuit and region’s unpredictable weather – with heavy and prolonged downpours likely – represent further unknowns for Team Peugeot TotalEnergies, although not for the whole team. Some of its drivers have raced at Fuji in the past, including Jean-Éric Vergne and Gustavo Menezes, while Loïc Duval and James Rossiter spent a part of their career based in Japan. The benefits of that experience will complement the data already acquired by the crews and their engineers from their work in the simulator as they endeavour to prepare as well as possible for the unique demands of this iconic Japanese track.
