Peugeot gets performance break for Bahrain WEC finale

The minimum weight of the Peugeot 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar has been reduced by 12kg for the Bahrain 8 Hours on 12 November, at the same time as the maximum power allowed to the rival Toyota GR010 HYBRID has come down by four kilowatts or 5.4bhp.

The revisions for Bahrain represent the first changes to the balance between the Peugeot and the Toyota LMHs since the arrival in the WEC of the French car at the Monza round in July.

Revisions are made under the LMH BoP system according to data accrued over two championship rounds, which the 9X8 has now contested in Italy and then Fuji in Japan in September.

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The weight of the Peugeot has come down from 1061 to 1049kg, while the peak power for the 9X8 remains at 515kW or 690bhp.

Toyota’s GR010s will again race at 1053kg, while peak power comes down from 513 to 509kW.

The changes for Fuji - when both the 9X8 and the GR010 ran minimum weights down by 18kg on Monza - were made in relation to the Alpine-Gibson A480, which lies outside the LMH BoP process as a grandfathered LMP1 design.

The Alpine, which formerly raced as the Rebellion R-13, also has a revised BoP for Bahrain.

The maximum power of the car’s Gibson V8 has been increased by 4kW to 407kW, while the minimum weight remains unchanged at 952kg.

The new power figure for the A480 follows a 26kW reduction for Fuji in the wake of its victory at Monza, which gave Alpine drivers Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negro the championship lead.

#36 Alpine Elf Team Alpine A480 - Gibson LMP1: André Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

They are now tied at the top of the championship with the Toyota crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa after finishing a distant third at Fuji.

The megajoules allowed per stint, which equates the number of laps the cars can do between fuel stops, has been tweaked for all three cars competing in the Hypercar class according to the weight and power changes.

The changes in Peugeot’s favour follows two races in which the 9X8 was not quite on the ultimate pace. The fastest of the two French cars was just over two tenths a lap off the winning Toyota using a 50-lap average at Fuji.

The BoP in GTE Pro has been tweaked in what will be the final race for the class in the WEC.

The weights of the Ferrari, Chevrolet and Porsche remain unchanged, but the Ferrari and the Chevrolet will run reduced power in comparison with Fuji.

The boost curve for the turbocharged Ferrari 488 GTE Evo has been slightly reduced, while the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R's normally-aspirated V8 will run an air-restrictor reduced in diameter by 0.4mm.