Peugeot team principal Emmanuel Esnault believes the French manufacturer has already “eradicated some issues of the current car” following an initial test of potential Evo joker upgrades for next season.
It has been a tough FIA World Endurance Championship campaign for Peugeot this year with the brand languishing in seventh place out of the eight Hypercar manufacturers with just one top-seven finish to date.
Esnault explained that Peugeot had deliberately saved the vast majority of its test dates for the second half of the season to enable it to focus on assessing substantial upgrades to the 9X8.
Peugeot plans to introduce a heavily revised car for 2027, but it has already used all of its permitted Evo jokers in the current period and is therefore reliant on securing additional jokers on the grounds of it being deemed by organizers to be at a significant performance disadvantage.
Images from the initial two-day test at Paul Ricard in late July showed widespread changes to the bodywork with Peugeot adopting a more similar approach to the rest of the Hypercar contenders.
Esnault said the test was “positive” with Peugeot notching up over 1,600 kilometers during the two days with furth...