Jean-Marc Finot, the French producer’s motorsport boss, advised Motorsport.com at Spa that “my feeling is that we’re being handled unfairly”.
He didn’t point out the BoP, as a result of it’s expressly forbidden for producers, groups and drivers to speak about it within the collection’ sporting rules.
However the interference from his feedback needs to be that Peugeot believes its up to date 9X8 2024 Le Mans Hypercar ought to have obtained a efficiency break for its second WEC look at Spa final weekend.
“We now have spent one yr attempting to enhance the automobile and we don’t see the impact on the race monitor or in our outcomes,” continued Finot.
“That could be very obscure and could be very unhealthy for crew morale.”
The brand new model of the 9X8 wasn’t aggressive on its debut at Imola in April and obtained no assist from the BoP forward of Saturday’s Spa 6 Hours.
The automobile was given a 4kg weight improve and a 2kW (2.5bhp) energy lower forward of spherical three of the WEC in Belgium.
That was in accordance with a realignment within the BoP for the Circuit de Spa-Franchorchamps that resulted in solely minor modifications for all of the vehicles within the Hypercar class bar the Ferrari 499P LMH, which was pegged again after Imola with a 12kg improve in minimal weight and an influence discount of 4kW (5bhp).
#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller
Photograph by: Marco Losi / KAPPAEMEDIA
However the Vehicle Membership de l’Ouest, which co-organises the WEC with the FIA, re-iterated a key part of the brand new BoP methodology launched for 2024 in response to Finot’s feedback.
“The method of the BoP lays down a window, and if a automobile is overperforming we are going to sluggish them down rapidly,” defined membership president Pierre Fillon.
“But when a automobile is underperforming we are going to react rather more slowly – that is to keep away from sandbagging.”
Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie described the displaying at Spa as disappointing regardless of one of the best of the 2 9X8s ending within the factors in tenth place.
“We’re fairly disenchanted by the efficiency of the automobile right here,” he mentioned after the race.
“We knew from the beginning, from Free Follow 1, that it might be fairly tough right here to be sincere, however we have been hoping to be a bit nearer than what we confirmed right this moment.”
Jansonnie identified that at Spa the 9X8 was fast within the quick first and final sectors, which precisely replicate sections of the Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans.
“We hope that we will present higher tempo on the Le Mans 24 Hours,” he continued.
“It’s fairly completely different when it comes to format”.
Finot refused to make any predictions for Le Mans subsequent month whereas once more steering away from point out of the BoP.
“There’s something that I can not converse of that might be completely different for Le Mans, so I can not make any forecast,” he mentioned.
Final yr the unique model of the 9X8 posted one in every of its finest performances at Le Mans, main the race on 4 events between the early night and shortly earlier than the midway mark because the #93 entry shared Loic Duval, Nico Muller and Gustavo Menezes constantly ran within the high three.
The revised model of the Peugeot has deserted the equally-sized entrance and rear tyres in favour of the narrower fronts and wider rears run by the remainder of the Hypercar subject.
The rearward shift in weight distribution that has accompanied the brand new tyre dimensions has resulted in an overhaul of the aerodynamic idea and the addition of a traditional rear wing.