JULY 18, 2008

Peugeot snooping around F1?

Peugeot Sport's director of communication Jean-Claude Lefebvre appeared in the paddock at Hockenheim, saying that he was "on holiday". This was much the same answer he gave 15 years ago when he appeared in the paddock prior to Peugeot's entry into F1 as an engine supplier in 1994. Peugeot's future in motorsport is currently unclear. At the moment the company is heavily involved in trying to win the Le Mans 24 Hours, but has yet to make any long term decisions about its sporting programmes. The current programme will last for one or two more years and it may be that if F1 costs reduce Peugeot might look again at engine supply in Formula 1. Much would obviously depend on the rules agreed but the company has a long history with turbo diesels, an engine configuration which many feel could be part of the long-term future of the sport.

Peugeot's last foray into Formula 1 began with McLaren but suffered a serious setback when the Woking team switched to Mercedes-Benz and the French firm ended up with Jordan. The engines were amongst the most powerful in the sport but at the time the Jordan team was not ready to challenge for victories and by the time the team had developed the engines had lost the advantage. In the end the Peugeot engine project was sold on to Asiatech but the company knows that it has the capacity to compete in F1 if the numbers make sense, particularly if there is a new formulae, which helps to even the playing field.