Peugeot were expecting to be further up the field than they are currently, Stoffel Vandoorne told Motorsport Week in the lead up to the next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
‘I think we were all expecting to be a bit higher up,’ the Belgian told reporters when asked how he felt the season was going so far.
‘We always aim high, obviously, and we want to we want to fight for for podiums for victories. So far, we’ve not really been able to do that on a regular basis.
‘There have been instances where the race situation has turned out favourable for us. But now the next step is to be able to do it on on the pure performance side.’
The French manufacturer currently sits seventh out of eight manufacturers in the WEC’s Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship. They’ve scored two eighth-place finishes (when customer cars are taken out of the equation), the team’s best results so far this year, from the races in Qatar, at Lusail, and Italy, at Imola.
Vandoorne drives the #94 Peugeot 9X8 alongside Hypercar rookie Malthe Jakobsen and 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Loic Duval. So far they have not managed to score any points, finishing out of the top 10 at both races this year.
This will be the Belgian’s first time racing for Peugeot at his home race. He missed last year due to a clash with a Formula E event, which he also competes in.
Peugeot aiming for double top 10 finishes
When Motorsport Week asked Jakobsen about his feelings on his first Hypercar season, he expanded a bit on Vandoorne’s answer.
‘Well, you would expect it to go even better. We all competitive and we all want to win, but we also know that it’s a competitive Championship, and that we can’t expect to be on the podium every weekend. The team goal for the moment is to have both cars to finish in the top 10 and we truly believe that it’s possible.
‘And we have seen that when we put everything together right, we have been able to show some promising things. I’m sure once we get it all right, we will be able to prove something, but it’s never coming easy and you need to work hard for it.’
Meanwhile, Vandoorne felt that the 9X8, in its second iteration after the original wingless design was replaced last year, is lacking compared to its competition.
‘Well, we need to improve in every in every aspect to be fair,’ he said.
‘There’s not one particular thing that we are looking at. It’s all the areas where we can do better, especially with such high competition right now.
‘It’s more challenging than it was before, so we have to be perfect. We can’t make mistakes. We need to be on top of our game and and we need to keep our heads down and work hard,’ concluded the 33-year-old.
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