Bruno Famin, PEUGEOT SPORT Director
“This marks the start of an exciting year for us, as the FIA World Rallycross Championship will be PEUGEOT’s key motorsport engagement in a factory capacity, with new rivals and a new environment. However, even though we have some past knowledge of the sport through the PEUGEOT-Hansen team, we have to be realistic, as our competitors are very experienced while we will have to train our team for this new discipline from scratch! Despite this big challenge, we are aiming for some wins this season, then something more in the seasons beyond. We decided to participate in world rallycross because we firmly believe in the future of this sport: the sporting format, which is short and intense, is exciting, the audience, younger than in other categories, is still growing, and furthermore we also believe in the electric future of the championship. So, we are preparing for this new generation of powertrain and new generation of fans right now, with the clear aim of promoting our current PEUGEOT 208 and its successor.”
Olivier Jansonnie, PEUGEOT SPORT Technical Director
“The target with our new car is to reach the level where we can compete with the frontrunners in rallycross and fight for the championship. And so, we have been through every aspect of the current car to identify ways in which we can reach that target. The result is a new car that will be progressively updated throughout the year. We start with quite a well-proven package, but as you add new elements to give you more performance, this can also come at the expense of reliability. Consequently, there is always a certain risk and we know we have a big challenge ahead. Our drivers are more than capable of fighting for wins, so I believe there’s a lot of potential in our package.”
Sébastien Loeb, Team PEUGEOT Total Driver #9
“My expectations are high for this year. PEUGEOT coming in as a factory team was exactly what was needed to take things up a level and enable us to fight for the championship. In the past we were close, but we were just missing a little extra. Now PEUGEOT’s official engagement can bring us that. We won’t have all the evolutions at the start of the year and that will make it difficult to fight for the championship from the beginning, but you never know: it all depends on how quickly we can develop. From a driving point of view, rallycross provides probably the most intense experience you can have as a driver. The races are very short, but the sensation is really amazing: the cars are like big WRC cars to drive, with 600 horsepower, so it’s a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to the season.”
Timmy Hansen, Team PEUGEOT Total Driver #21
“I’ve never competed at such a high level before with a factory team, so it’s an honour to be chosen to represent PEUGEOT at such an important time. We’re expecting the car to be better than ever with all the evolutions implemented by the PEUGEOT SPORT engineers, so this certainly increases our opportunity to do well, but we’ve got to remember that there are some very strong rivals in this championship. I prefer to keep my feet on the ground. My aim is simply to do as well as I can on every round, so that we can build on our progress step by step. I’m looking forward to getting behind the wheel at the first round in Barcelona; then we will see where we are compared to the others.”
Kevin Hansen, Team PEUGEOT Total Driver #71
“This is a fantastic opportunity for me, to join the official PEUGEOT team and to benefit from all the team’s knowledge. Maybe it’s come as a surprise to some people because my season last year wasn’t great, but I’ve learned a lot and I’m sure I can come back stronger. My aim is to be in the finals more often this year: if I achieve that, then we can maximise our chances. It’s so fantastic to have PEUGEOT in the sport as a factory team, and a sign of the big manufacturer interest in the future of this series, especially with the move to eventually becoming an electric championship. This is all positive
