Nico Muller will split with Peugeot at the end of the 2024 World Endurance Championship, with rising star Malthe Jakobsen stepping up from the reserve driver role as his replacement.
Muller has been racing for Peugeot in the Hypercar class ever since his early exit from Audi at the conclusion of the 2022 DTM season, which followed the German manufacturer’s decision to call off its under-development LMDh programme.
But the Swiss driver will end this stint with Peugeot and the wider Stellantis group after two years, with his future remaining uncertain at the moment.
His place in the team will be taken over by 20-year-old Jakobsen, although it remains unclear where exactly he will be slotted in Peugeot’s two-car line-up.
The Danish driver tested the 9X8 during the Bahrain rookie tests in both 2022 and ‘23 and was promoted to the team’s reserve driver this year, gaining further experience of the LMH car in the simulator as part of the new role.
However, he was overlooked to race at the Spa 6 Hours when both Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne were unavailable due to a Formula E clash, as Peugeot entered two drivers across both its cars.
Jakobsen brings with him an impressive CV to WEC, having won the LMP3 title in the European Le Mans Series in 2022 before winning the overall Asian Le Mans Series at the beginning of this year.
He is currently competing in ELMS’s top-tier LMP2 class with Cool Racing and won the season-opening race in Barcelona along with team-mates Ritomo Miyata and Lorenzo Fluxa.
“I'm delighted to join Team Peugeot TotalEnergies’ as official driver in next season’s FIA World Endurance Championship,” said Jakobsen.
“I'm very proud to have been part of this team for the last two years, first as junior driver and then this year as reserve driver. Thanks to all the team for giving me this great opportunity.”
Stellantis’s motorsport chief Jean-Marc Finot added: “We are very pleased to offer Malthe a seat in our WEC team for the 2025 season.
“As part of Stellantis Motorsport’s strategy for promoting talented young drivers, Malthe has shown constant progress and a lot of maturity.
“His promotion is the next logical step in his career and we are convinced that he will be an asset to the team in the PEUGEOT 9X8.”
Muller made his debut in Peugeot 9X8 in the 2022 Bahrain finale as a replacement for the retired James Rossiter, before joining the team for the full year in 2023 with team-mates Loic Duval and Gustavo Menezes.
He was moved to the sister #93 car in 2024 alongside Jean-Eric Vergne and Mikkel Jensen and was on course for a maiden podium finish in the Qatar season-opener, before the car slowed down with a few minutes to run after running out of fuel.
With the car later disqualified from the Losail round for a double breach of regulations, a fourth-place finish in the 2022 Bahrain event remains his best outright result in the WEC.
“It has been a wild ride @nico_mueller and it isn’t over just yet,” Peugeot announced on social media site X (formerly Twitter).
“But at the end of the season, our favorite Swiss driver will leave Team Peugeot TotalEnergies to write a new chapter of his racing journey.
“Danke, grazie, merci Nico for the hard work and good vibes!!”
The news about Muller leaving Peugeot follows his announcement that he will also be leaving Abt in Formula E after this weekend's London finale, just as the German team begins a new tie-up with Lola Cars and Yamaha.
The 32-year-old has been tipped to move to Porsche customer Andretti in the all-electric championship next year, although it remains unclear how that would affect his future in WEC.
Muller previously enjoyed a long relationship with fellow Volkswagen Group marque Audi that saw him win multiple races in the DTM and score an outright Nurburgring 24 Hours victory in 2015.
