Jean-Marc Finot, the French manufacturer’s motorsport boss, told Autosport at Spa that “my feeling is that we are being treated unfairly”.
He did not mention the BoP, because it is expressly forbidden for manufacturers, teams and drivers to talk about it in the series sporting regulations.
But the interference from his comments has to be that Peugeot believes its updated 9X8 2024 Le Mans Hypercar should have received a performance break for its second WEC appearance at Spa last weekend.
“We have spent one year trying to improve the car and we don’t see the effect on the race track or in our results,” continued Finot.
“That is very difficult to understand and is very bad for team morale.”
The new version of the 9X8 wasn’t competitive on its debut at Imola in April and received no help from the BoP ahead of Saturday’s Spa 6 Hours.
The car was given a 4kg weight increase and a 2kW (2.5bhp) power decrease ahead of round three of the WEC in Belgium.
That was in accordance with a realignment in the BoP for the Circuit de Spa-Franchorchamps that resulted in only minor changes for all the cars in the Hypercar class bar the Ferrari 499P LMH, which was pegged back after Imola with a 12kg increase in minimum weight and a power reduction of 4kW (5bhp).
But the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, which co-organises the WEC with the FIA, re-iterated a key component of the new BoP methodology introduced for 2024 in reaction to Finot’s comments.
“The process of the BoP lays down a window, and if a car is overperforming we will slow them down quickly,” explained club president Pierre Fillon.
“But if a car is underperforming we will react much more slowly - this is to avoid sandbagging.”
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Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie described the showing at Spa as disappointing despite the best of the two 9X8s finishing in the points in 10th place.
“We are quite disappointed by the performance of the car here,” he said after the race.
“We knew from the start, from Free Practice 1, that it would be quite difficult here to be honest, but we were hoping to be a bit closer than what we showed today.”
Jansonnie pointed out that at Spa the 9X8 was quick in the fast first and last sectors, which accurately replicate sections of the Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans.
“We hope that we can show better pace at the Le Mans 24 Hours,” he continued.
“It is quite different in terms of layout”.
Finot refused to make any predictions for Le Mans next month while again steering clear of mention of the BoP.
“There is something that I cannot speak of that will be different for Le Mans, so I cannot make any forecast,” he said.
Last year the original version of the 9X8 posted one of its best performances at Le Mans, leading the race on four occasions between the early evening and shortly before the halfway mark as the #93 entry shared Loic Duval, Nico Muller and Gustavo Menezes consistently ran in the top three.
The revised version of the Peugeot has abandoned the equally-sized front and rear tyres in favour of the narrower fronts and wider rears run by the rest of the Hypercar field.
The rearward shift in weight distribution that has accompanied the new tyre dimensions has resulted in an overhaul of the aerodynamic concept and the addition of a conventional rear wing.
