F1 Fanatic

Someone needs to buy that Peugeot LMP – that’s a potentially Le Mans-winning car sitting waiting to be raced. Potential for a WEC version of the Brawn story?

I’d love to think that’s what’s going to happen.

Alas I fear we’re more likely to see a repeat of Toyota in 2010 – a ready-to-race car sat in a garage gathering dust and drivers who could be competing left on the sidelines.

That depends on whether said rich person offers more money for the cars though, doesnt it. the problem is, if they sell them to Privateers, they have to keep producing parts for the cars to support those privateers – I vaguely recall thats why Porsche eventually pulled the plug on supporting teams running the RS Spyder.

I’m sorry, but every rumour coming out through trusted sportscar racing media says that the 908s are parked under covers at Velizy and all attempts to “cast them off” to private teams to run at least in semi-works state were scuppered, either by the Peugeot board, or by lack of sponsorship. So there will be no 908s running anywhere… which is a shame.

As for the other drivers… Minassian has left Peugeot a couple of weeks before the announcement but he is in talks with other teams in LMP1, while both Davidson and Gene are nominally test drivers for Merc and Ferrari (particularly for simulator work) and with commentary jobs. I’d like to see Ant, Stephane and Franck snapped up by other teams in time for Sebring. The guys who are really in the air though are Lucas di Grassi and Jean-Karl Vernay, di Grassi had signed for Peugeot prior to the program being terminated, and Vernay was likely to be promoted from his test driver position (he did race for Signatech in the last three ILMC races last year, so he might find a drive there with the team possibly expanding to two cars).

@Victor_RO

either by the Peugeot board, or by lack of sponsorship

Presumably it would be down to whoever ran the cars to fund it so I doubt it’s the latter.

But do I believe the manufacturer would refuse to let the cars races because they don’t trust anyone else with their intellectual property? Absolutely.

A great shame. When they’ve gone to the expense of researching and building them, to just let them rot or turn them into museum pieces when they could be competing is a terrible waste. It’s one thing to wind down a racing programme, quite another to cut it off in its prime shortly before the new season begins.

@Victor_RO

the Lotus appearance in LMP2 is basically just a cynical rebadge and paint-job exercise

So much like all the other racing pies Lotus are sticking their fingers into right now then?

Makes you wonder if they ever plan to advertise and sell their road cars by properly building and racing their own designs, or if they’re going to spend their time, as you say, cynically rebadging any race car they can get their hands on.

I don’t think that you can hold it against Lotus that they use Cosworth for engines- they aren’t alone. Every other entry of theirs is very cynical though. I’d come to like the Renault F1 team after Alonso left, but if it wasn’t for the driver line-up I would have stopped now that they are ‘Lotus.’

I’d love to think that’s what’s going to happen.

I did hear a rumour the other day that Peugeot discreetly sold the chassis onto a privateer two days before their works programme was shut down. I can’t verify it, though. I also heard a second rumour that they had tried to get ORECA to run the 908s, but Toyota beat them to it.

I’ve seen Lotus’ name pop up on the entry list (on the 2012 WEC season Wikipedia page, at least), but it’s in the LMP2 category rather LMP1.

I saw that, too, but you need to subscribe to the website in order to read the article. I did notice that the title of the article said the company’s plans would be released “next week”, but it was published in December …