Peugeot returns to international top level of sportscar racing.
The PSA Group has announced their entry to the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2022 onwards.
They will run in the new Hypercar category, with a brand new, not yet announced hybrid car.
Toyota and Aston Martin have already opted on the new rules, and will be running from season one of the new regulations.
The programme will start from the 2022/2023 season, so their first 24 Hours of Le Mans will be in 2023. That will be on the 100 year anniversary of the classic race, which surely has some kind of influence on their decision as well.
Peugeot has won the race three times. The first two came in 1992 and 1993 withDerek Warwick/Yannick Dalmas/Mark Blundell and Geoff Brabham/Christophe Bouchut/Eric Helary respectively. They finally managed to beat Audi in 2009, after having failed the two previous years, where the younger brother of Geoff, David Brabham won alongside Marc Gene and Alexander Wurz.
Peugeot was pushing hard for a World Championship for the Le Mans cars, but when it finally was put in place in 2012, they opted to pull out due to cost cutting in the PSA Group. A lot of the driving talent was grabbed by Toyota Gazoo Racing, which was starting up at that point, and actually jumped in before time, to give some competition to Audi in LMP1 in the FIA WEC.
Their focus has primarily been on the World Rallycross Championship, before they pulled out in 2018. They currently have no official motorsport programme.
There are no news on neither the car model nor the drivers – but they have about two years until the testing starts.
