 Peugeot Sport logo used since 2020 | |
| Formerly | Peugeot Talbot Sport |
|---|---|
| Company type | Division |
| Industry | Automotive Auto racing |
| Founded | 1981; 45 years ago (1981) |
| Founder | Jean Todt |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Parent | Peugeot |
| Website | peugeot-sport.com |
Peugeot Sport is the department of French carmakerPeugeot responsible formotorsport activities.
Peugeot Sport was formed in 1981 under the name ofPeugeot Talbot Sport, afterJean Todt, aWorld Rally Championship co-driver forTalbot driverGuy Fréquelin, was asked by Peugeot to create a sporting department for thePSA Peugeot Citroën group.
Therally team, established at 8, rue Paul Bert,Boulogne-Billancourt (the sportscar racing team will leave those premises in July 1990 to go toVélizy-Villacoublay) nearParis, France[1] debuted itsGroup BPeugeot 205 Turbo 16 in the1984 season, and took its first victory inRally Finland in the hands ofAri Vatanen.
In the1985 season, Peugeot drivers Vatanen andTimo Salonen won seven out of the 12 rounds to give Peugeot its first manufacturers' title and Salonen the drivers' title. Vatanen had been seriously injured in an accident in Argentina in 1985, so was replaced byJuha Kankkunen for the1986 season, who promptly delivered the team the second consecutive title. TheFIA banned Group B cars for the1987 season after the fatal accident ofHenri Toivonen. This lead Peugeot to switch torally raid, using the 205 to win theDakar Rally for two consecutive years in 1987 to 1988, and then used the405 to win in 1989 and 1990. Peugeot Talbot Sport also participated three times at the Pikes Peak Hillclimb Race in 1987, 1988 and 1989, winning the last two years, as well as in 2013 with the 208 T16.
Inendurance racing Peugeot Talbot Sport established theirsportscar racing team atVélizy-Villacoublay near Paris, France[2] and in November 1988 launched thePeugeot 905 project, to develop a sportscar in thesports prototype category to begin competing in theWorld Sportscar Championship in the1991 season.
The 905 made its racing debut in the final two races of the1990 season, and finished second in the 1991 season. In the1992 season, Peugeot Talbot Sport won the24 Hours of Le Mans, with driversDerek Warwick,Yannick Dalmas andMark Blundell. They also won the 1992 World Sportscar Championship, thanks to Warwick, Dalmas,Philippe Alliot andMauro Baldi. The championship did not run in 1993, but Peugeot were able to take a 1–2–3 finish at the1993 24 Hours of Le Mans, withÉric Hélary,Christophe Bouchut andGeoff Brabham driving the winning car. Peugeot Talbot Sport subsequently pulled out of sportscar racing. Jean Todt, meanwhile, left Peugeot forScuderia Ferrari.
Peugeot switched toFormula One for1994, using a similar3.5L V10 engine as found in the 905 and intended to compete against engine manufacturer compatriotRenault. This was developed to be used byMcLaren in 1994. However, poor reliability led to the relationship ending at the end of 1994 after 8 podiums, zero victories and 17 DNFs. It was then revealed that the main reason for the relationship collapsing was because Peugeot did not provide the factory support promised when McLaren signed with them over the alternative Chrysler-Lamborghini offering. McLaren elected to switch to worksIlmor-builtMercedes-Benz High Performance Engines with guaranteed factory support from Mercedes directly and in effect becoming their new works team from the1995 season onwards. This led to Peugeot supplyingJordan Grand Prix in1995,1996, and1997 with 5 podiums as best results, Peugeot's best chance of victory during this time came at the1995 Canadian Grand Prix when bothEddie Irvine andRubens Barrichello finished 2nd and 3rd on the podium respectively, political pressures from France however meant Peugeot switched their allegiance to theProst Grand Prix team for the1998,1999 and2000 seasons for an attempt at becoming an all French Powerhouse and thus Prost earned Peugeot's direct factory support. It was established just a few days before the partnership was made official that Peugeot had changed the terms of their agreement with Prost meaning they had to pay Peugeot for the engines over a period of 3 Seasons rather than receiving them for free over a period of 5 Seasons, this left Prost with little to no choice but to agree to the new terms as it would have left them with little to no time to either find a new engine supplier or returning toMugen-Honda which was not possible as they had already reached an agreement to supply Jordan, however also not doing so would have had major ramifications with potential sponsors pulling out of sponsoring them,[3] the relationship was a disaster, in 1998 a measly 1 point was scored over the entire season in Belgium courtesy ofJarno Trulli which was a stark contrast to the 33 points Peugeot had scored with Jordan in 1997, 1999 was only a slight improvement with 9 points scored though a final podium was achieved for Peugeot at the1999 European Grand Prix courtesy of Trulli finishing 2nd, However, after a pointless 2000 season where poor reliability matched with Prost's inability to deliver a competitive chassis combined with having scored no wins since their debut as an engine supplier in 1994, led to the French marque pulling the plug out of F1 after 115 Grand Prix entries with just 14 podiums scored. At the end of 2000, Frederic Saint-Geours, the CEO of Peugeot said "In life one must never say never, but if you want my opinion, it is that Peugeot will never again race in F1"[4]
The Peugeot engines were bought by an Asian consortium led by former F1 designerEnrique Scalabroni calledAsiatech and used for two further years (in 2001 forArrows and in 2002 forMinardi. The former named Peugeot engine's best result during this time was at the2002 Australian Grand Prix whenMark Webber managed an incredible 5th place on his debut, this unexpected success meant the team were allowed an exception to celebrate on the Podium Step. The Asiatech engines were both reliable, powerful and were supplied at zero cost, but its poor driveability led to both teams replacing them in favor of more costly but more capable Cosworth units.
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Peugeot entered theBritish Touring Car Championship in 1992, preparing405's for former championRobb Gravett. The team was run in-house from the company's UK factory inCoventry. The 405 never won a race despite promising results in its four seasons of competition, before being replaced in 1996 by the406. Unfortunately Peugeot UK did not share any technical data with its European contemporaries, and the BTCC programme suffered. Peugeot handed the works deal to Motor Sport Developments for 1997 and 98, but wins still eluded the team. With spiralling costs in the series, Peugeot withdrew from the BTCC at the end of 1998.
With hisPeugeot 406,Laurent Aïello won the 1997Super Tourenwagen Cup season.
The Peugeot 306 GTi won the prestigiousSpa 24 hours endurance race in 1999 and 2000.
Peugeot won five times theDanish Touringcar Championship, with both the Peugeot 306 -winner in 1999, 2000 and 2001– and thePeugeot 307 winner in 2002 and 2003.
Peugeot has been racing successfully in theAsian Touring Car Series, winning the 2000, 2001, and 2002 championships with thePeugeot 306 GTi.
In 2001, Peugeot entered three406 Coupés into the British Touring Car Championship to compete with the dominantVauxhall Astra Coupés. However, the 406 Coupé was not competitive, despite some promise towards the end of the year, notably when Peugeot's Steve Soper led a race only to suffer engine failure in the last few laps. The 406 Coupés were retired at the end of the following year and replaced with the307—again, uncompetitively—in 2003.
Peugeot has been racing successfully in theStock Car Brasil series since 2007 and won the 2008, 2009, and 2011 championships. Peugeot Argentina has participated inTC 2000/Super TC 2000, where it has also won championships.
In 2013, thePeugeot 208GTi won a one-two-three at the24 Hours Nürburgring endurance race.[5]
In 1999, Peugeot Sport returned to the World Rally Championship with thePeugeot 206 WRC, under the guidance of directorCorrado Provera. The car debuted at theTour de Corse, withFrançois Delecour driving one car andGilles Panizzi andMarcus Grönholm sharing the second car over the remaining events. Grönholm finished fourth on the car's third event,Rally Finland, before Panizzi finished second onRallye Sanremo.
In 2000, Grönholm gave the car its first victory atRally Sweden, and followed this up with wins in New Zealand, Finland and Australia on his way to the Drivers’ championship. Panizzi won in Corsica and Sanremo, giving Peugeot the Manufacturers’ championship.
In 2001,Didier Auriol joined the team, replacing Delecour as the main driver alongside Grönholm. Panizzi andHarri Rovanperä also drove additional cars for the team on selected events. Rovanperä won round two in Sweden, as Grönholm struggled with retirements during the first half of the year. Auriol won in Spain, Grönholm won in Finland, Australia and Great Britain, and Panizzi won in Italy. The team retained their manufacturers’ crown, even though Grönholm was the best placed driver in the drivers’ standings, in fourth place. Rovanperä was fifth, Auriol eighth and Panizzi ninth.
For 2002, the team signedRichard Burns, the 2001 champion, from Subaru, replacing Auriol in the team. Grönholm won round two in Sweden, before Panizzi took back-to-back wins in France and Spain. Grönholm won the next event in Cyprus, before he and Burns were disqualified for a technical infringement in Argentina. Grönholm won again in Finland, while Panizzi won his third event of the year in Italy. Grönholm completed back-to-back victories in New Zealand and Australia to take his second drivers’ title. Burns finished the season fifth, ahead of Panizzi and Rovanperä in sixth and seventh. Peugeot were able to take a third consecutive Manufacturers’ title.
The driver lineup remained the same for 2003, withMarlboro joining as title sponsor. Grönholm won in Sweden yet again, and took another two wins in New Zealand and Argentina. Panizzi picked up another win in Spain. Poised to rejoin Subaru in 2004, Burns was ruled out of action ahead of the final round of the season in Great Britain, having suffered a blackout while driving to the event. He was replaced for the event and the 2004 season by BelgianFreddy Loix. Burns finished the season fourth in the standings, ahead of Grönholm in sixth. Peugeot lost its manufacturers crown toCitroën.
Peugeot introduced a new car for the 2004 season, the307 WRC, which was based upon the coupé cabriolet version of the 307 road car. Having originally not been part of the team at the start of the season, Rovanperä replaced Loix after two rounds in the team's second car alongside Grönholm, who struggled with the new car initially. He took the team's only victory of the season in Finland, and he finished fifth in the standings at the end of the season. Peugeot finished fourth in the manufacturers’ standings.
For 2005, Peugeot signedMarkko Märtin from Ford to partner Grönholm. Once again, it took until Grönholm won Rally Finland yet again in August for the team to win. Two rallies later, in Great Britain, Märtin's co-driverMichael Park was killed after the pair's 307 WRC left the road. Märtin subsequently pulled out of the World Rally Championship.Daniel Carlsson andNicolas Bernardi both filled in for him during the final four events. Grönholm took a second win of the season in Japan, on his way to third in the standings. Peugeot finished second in the manufacturers’ standings. At the end of 2005, PSA Peugeot Citroën withdrew its two teams from the WRC. Citroën took a year out to develop a new car and returned in 2007, but Peugeot did not return to the WRC.
Peugeot Sport created thePeugeot 207 S2000, a rally car built toSuper 2000 regulations. Peugeot Sport enter the cars, run byKronos Racing, in theIntercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). Peugeot driversEnrique García-Ojeda,Nicolas Vouilloz andKris Meeke won the IRC drivers' title in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. It was replaced by208 T16, which competes under R5 Regulations.
Under the guidance of new director Michel Barge, Peugeot Sport returned to sportscar racing for 2007, taking on the dominantAudi with thePeugeot 908 HDi FAP. The car made its debut at the2007 1000km of Monza, the opening round of the2007 Le Mans Series season. The pairing ofMarc Gené andNicolas Minassian took the car to victory. At the2007 24 Hours of Le Mans,Stéphane Sarrazin took pole position for the team ahead of the Audis. In the race, the #8 car of Sarrazin,Pedro Lamy andSébastien Bourdais finished second behind the #1 Audi. After Le Mans, Sarrazin and Lamy took the Le Mans Series title for Peugeot.
At the2008 24 Hours of Le Mans, Peugeot and Sarrazin once again took pole position, locking out the first three places on the grid. In the race, the trio of cars finished in second, third and fifth. In the Le Mans Series, Peugeot lost out to Audi again, Minassian and Gené finishing in second place.
At the beginning of 2009, PSA Peugeot Citroën made Citroën Sport director Olivier Quesnel the director of Peugeot Sport too. At the2009 24 Hours of Le Mans, Sarrazin set his third consecutive pole position for the team. In the race, the team delivered its first Le Mans victory since 1993, with the trio ofDavid Brabham, Gené andAlexander Wurz winning ahead of the car driven byFranck Montagny, Bourdais and Sarrazin. The team's third car finished the race in sixth position. The team only contested one round of the Le Mans Series season, at Spa as preparation for Le Mans itself.
Peugeot scored a 1–2 finish at the2010 12 Hours of Sebring. However, reliability problems for all four of the 908s (including Oreca's entry) at the2010 24 Hours of Le Mans meant that Audi finished 1–2–3 at the race.
At the2011 12 Hours of Sebring, the older Peugeot 908 HDi FAP owned by Oreca Racing had a surprise win over the factory 908s and Audi R15++s. At the2011 24 Hours of Le Mans, Peugeot saw itself in a position to win after two of the Audi R18s crashed; only a strong effort from the sole surviving Audi kept Peugeot from winning the race. The winning Audi was only 13 seconds ahead of the second-place Peugeot 908.
On 18 January 2012, Peugeot Sport announced its withdrawal from sportscar racing, citing lowering car sales and the economic downturn as reasons. A return, however, was not ruled out if funds can be procured for the future, but not likely before 2015.[6]
On 13 November 2019 Peugeot announced that they would take part in the2022 FIA World Endurance Championship in the newly createdHypercar class, which made the brand's return to the sports car racing landscape after an 11-year absence.[7] During the2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, the CEO ofPSA GroupCarlos Tavares unveiled renders of the new Peugeot Hypercar,[8] and in December 2020, Peugeot andTotal unveiled the powertrain called thePeugeot Hybrid4 (this platform was born in 2012 with the unveil of the 2012 hybrid-spec of thePeugeot 908),[9] with aerodynamics completed in partnership withLigier.[10] On 8 February 2021, Peugeot revealed a driver line-up consisting ofLoic Duval,Jean-Éric Vergne,Mikkel Jensen,Gustavo Menezes,Paul Di Resta, andKevin Magnussen, as well asJames Rossiter as simulator/reserve driver for the WEC 2022 season.[11] Rossiter was later promoted to full-time driver after Magnussen was announced to be driving for theHaas F1 Team in2022, thus leaving him unavailable for WEC.[12] Rossiter was later replaced byNico Müller for the final round of 2022 and the 2023 season.[13][14] Peugeot earned their first podium finish in the WEC at the2023 6 Hours of Monza.[15]
AfterAri Vatanen andBobby Unser, in the late 1980s, won the Pikes Peak Hillclimb Race, Peugeot Sport andSébastien Loeb decided to unite their respective strengths and go for it.
In April 2013, a 208 T16 was tested bySébastien Loeb atMont Ventoux.[16] Loosely based on the shape and design of the production 208, the T16 is a lightweight 875 kg (1,929 lb) vehicle that uses the rear wing from thePeugeot 908, and has a 3.2-litre, twin-turbo V6 engine, developing 875 bhp (652 kW; 887 PS) with the aim of competing at thePikes Peak International Hill Climb. On 30 June 2013 this car demolished the standing record on Pikes Peak by over a minute and a half, with an overall time of 8:13.878.[17]
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Intercontinental Le Mans Cup for Manufacturers (2010–2011)[edit]
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