Peugeot’s Jean-Eric Vergne believes a top 5 result at the 24 Hours of Le Mans is possible for the beleaguered Peugeot team.
“If we don’t have any technical issues and we don’t make mistakes, top five is realistic. But it’s a big ‘if’, if we don’t have any technical issues,” he told media at a press conference hosted by Peugeot on Friday evening.
“The performance as we’ve seen in the long run, was actually pretty good. So we can fight with the other teams and it’ll be nice,” added the Frenchman, referring to Peugeot’s pace in the race.
Alongside reliability issues for Peugeot in the first three races of the season and in the build-up sessions to Le Mans, including test day and free practice, the French team has been off the pace over a single lap. They qualified 10th and 11th on the grid, over three seconds off the pace, missing out on Hyperpole and behind all the other manufacturer teams.
Questioned further by MotorsportWeek.com after the press conference as to whether a top 5 result was realistic, Vergne said: “Yeah, because it’s Le Mans. You’re going to have drivers making mistakes and teams having reliability issues.
“Maybe what’s unrealistic is saying we’re not going to have any any issues, when you look at the history, but we never know. The guys have been working so hard. The team deserves to have a clean race.”
However, is there a chance of a top 5 after 24 hours on pace alone? Vergne was coy with his predictions but emphasised Peugeot is not as far as off as qualifying made out.
“The car feels good in the long run. And in terms of pace against the other guys, we are clearly not as far as what it seems in qualifying,” said the 33-year-old Frenchman.
“For sure, you need luck,” he continued.
“But you’ve seen how Audi won against Peugeot despite being three seconds slower. It has happened, you know?
“The level is so high. A few years ago when they were running the Toyotas, fighting the Alpine and the Glickenhaus, there was not much competition. But now, everybody has to push, 100% and make tough decisions in time of strategies.
“That can be risky, you know, especially with the rain. Everybody is going to push everybody. And people are going to have to to make bold moves, either the drivers or the teams.
“So there’s going to be mistakes, for sure, there’s going to be issues. And for that, you need to be lucky if you want to end up good, but on top of being lucky you need to be on top of the reliability.”
Stellantis’ vice president of motorsport, Jean-Marc Finot, agreed independently with Vergne’s assessment.
“I think it’s not optimistic,” he said, when asked by MotorsportWeek.com if a top 5 position was optimistic.
The main stake is to stay as less as possible in the pit. For us, I think there are two inside the pace. We are little slower than our competitors in qualifying, but I think that the race pace shouldn’t be so far.
However, staying out of the pits has been an issue for Peugeot so far this season. Can they manage it at Le Mans?
“For sure our car is not bulletproof yet,” Finot said.
“Compared with other cars, we have only six races experience. But the team has proven that they were able to fix issues in a very short time, such as issues on the gearbox. So we know that all issues we already got solved. After, it’s a 24-hour rest. We have to keep in mind that it’s as long as a Formula 1 season!”
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