Olivier Jansonnie, technical director on the 9X8 programme at Peugeot Sport, described the third place for Mikkel Jensen, Paul di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne in Sunday’s Monza 6 Hours as “quite logical and well deserved”.
He explained that it followed the increase in competitiveness of a car that has struggled since its debut at the corresponding WEC race last year. The year-on-year improvement was already evident in practice and qualifying at Monza.
“It’s huge because we have been racing for one year now and we have had a lot of disappointment since the beginning of the programme,” he said.
“I said earlier in the week that a podium was possible and it has become real: it is a big thing for the team for sure.
“It gives an extra boost to the team and shows that we are improving,” said Jansonnie.
“We have seen since the beginning of the weekend that we have much more pace than the first races. We knew from free practice that our stints in the race would be quite good.
“We also knew that to achieve this result we had to do an almost perfect race, and that’s what we did.”
Jansonnie conceded that the third-placed 9X8 lost some competitiveness in the latter stages of the race on the way to finishing 1m18s down on the winning Toyota, but he explained that it was too early to say why, prior to a thorough analysis.
“The temperatures went up, but the track got some more grip as well, and the lap times came down,” he explained.
“At this stage, we were a bit less competitive.
“We still have to work on the speed of the car, but the differences are very small now.”
Jansonnie had called the Le Mans 24 Hours “a turning point” in the programme after Peugeot led the race and ran in the top three for a protracted period through the night.
He also stressed the importance of returning to a track for a second time at Monza last weekend.
“Set-up wise I would not say we are sorted because you are never sorted. But we are not as far away as when we arrived here last year,” he said.
The Balance of Performance also played a part, Jansonnie intimated without using the term BoP, because “we are running at a different power”.
That is a reference to the 4kW or 5.3bhp increase in maximum power allowed to the 9X8 under the new BoP introduced in the run-up to Monza.
Jansonnie believes that the second Peugeot could have fought for a podium finish but for a 17-minute delay in the pits with gear-selection problems.
A new hydraulic gear-shift activator was introduced on the 9X8 at the Portimao race in April.
This component was replaced during the pitstop, but Jansonnie declined to go into detail about the problem.
