Its common knowledge that drivers of modern Peugeots are the worst on the road. With the last glory days of the 205, 405 and 206 now long gone the company has continually produced passionless lumps of steel. This seems to take the fancy of people with little interest or knowledge of driving. Ironically the name is intrinsic to the history of the automobile.
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| Peugeot entered some of the earliest Grand Prix races |
In fact Peugeot were competing in motorsport before Enzo Ferrari was even conceived. Their later debut into Grand Prix racing would follow in 1912, revolutionising the world with the first double overhead-cam engine. Fast forward seventy years to glorious scenes of their 205 turbo monster being thrashed around rally stages by Ari Vatanen and you would be hard pressed to understand why their F1 program was such a disaster.
As the Grand Prix circus rolled into the 90's McLaren were enjoying the wave of success from their Senna/Honda partnership. Unfortunately for the Woking outfit, Honda were to pull out for as an engine supplier in 1993 to prepare for competing in the American CART series. Testing followed on the look out for a new partnership with encouraging performances from Lamborghini and even Isuzu. For 1993 the team would have to endure a lacklustre Ford V8. The engine was throttled to ensure that Benneton had the best performing Ford unit, leaving McLaren outraged. When Senna departed at the end of the season for Williams it seemed he was abandoning a sinking ship.
As promising as the Isuzu test proved, the Japanese giant took a u-turn to focus on the commercial vehicle market. Thankfully the Chysler-backed Lamborghini V12 engine was already promised to McLaren for 1994 before any contract was signed.
Enter Peugeot. Recent rule changes in Group C Sportscars had engines homologated to bring them inline with F1 specifications. This meant it was cost effective for the French manufacturer to simply modify the engine in the back of their successful 905 and shoe horn it into an F1 car. This was the assumption however, and it was an assumption that Peugeot sport boss Jean Todt disagreed with. He was dismayed with the lack of investment into the program and left for many sucessful years at Ferrari.
McLaren boss Ron Dennis still saw potential in being supplied by such an industrial powerhouse. At the time Peugeots arch rivals Renault were the dominant force of F1 powertrains. Dennis hoped this could spark an inter-French engine war to his advantage. Much to Chysler's dismay the contract was signed for the 1994 season and the Gaelic lion would adorn the engine cover of the McLaren.
Ron Dennis was eager for Alain Prost to drive the car that season and he joined the team for pre season testing in Estoril, Portugal. However after the first few laps in the car it seemed he was unimpressed. Worse still, Martin Brundle was next in the race seat only for the Peugeot to throw a conrod with such force that it flew though the sump and damaged the race track.
With Prost now out of the picture it seemed the talented Brundle would get his chance, finally at the wheel of a pedigree marque. However it became quickly apparent at the start of the season the engine still had a very dangerous flaw:
This was a sign of things to come, with the unreliable unit being nicknamed a 'hand grenade' for its horrendous reliability. The first 2 races resulted in retirement for both Brundle and team mate Hakkinnen. At Imola a revised unit with more horsepower allowed Hakkinen a 3rd place finish, but for the rest of the season it proved troublesome.
At Silverstone the engine let go in spectacular fire-ball spitting fashion as Brundle began his formation lap. When Brundle returned to the garage Peugeot sport engineers carried out a post inspection and claimed that the engine was still completely usable and the team should have continued racing. It seemed politics and finger pointing were taking hold, as they failed to include in this press release the fact that half the oil was missing as well as severe fire damage to the bodywork and rear suspension.
To add insult to injury Peugeot were keen for their French accident-prone driver Phillippe Alliot to replace Brundle for the rest of the season. This enraged Ron Dennis, only conceding Alliot a drive at the Hungarian Grand Prix in place of Hakinnen who was sitting out a one race ban. By the end of the season with no wins and 17 DNFs, McLaren announced they would be parting ways with Peugeot. A new contract was signed with Mercedes for 1995 that would last for 20 years and herald a golden era for the team.
Peugeot soldiered on, supplying Jordan with engines the next three years with some promising podium finishes. For 1998 they joined the new French super team of Prost, but both reliability and a poor car hampered decent results. A miserable 2000 season saw the team score no points and Peugeot finally pulled the plug on their disastrous foray. The engines continued to be campaigned for a further 2 seasons, being purchased by the Asiatech consortium with the hope of plundering the technology for a future Asian F1 team. Pie-in the sky thinking resulted in the failed project being sold back to Peugeot and later auctioned off.
Thankfully things weren't all doom and gloom for Peugeot Sport who enjoyed 3 consecutive World Rally Championships from 2000-2003. Later in the decade they returned to top-tier sports car racing, taking on the might of Audi with impressive performances culminating in a win at LeMans in 2009. With the creation of the new 'hypercar' sports car class for 2022 Peugeot have renewed their commitment to top level motorsport, although the bitter experience of massive financial losses means a return to F1 is unlikely.
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| Group B rally madness |
As the Grand Prix circus rolled into the 90's McLaren were enjoying the wave of success from their Senna/Honda partnership. Unfortunately for the Woking outfit, Honda were to pull out for as an engine supplier in 1993 to prepare for competing in the American CART series. Testing followed on the look out for a new partnership with encouraging performances from Lamborghini and even Isuzu. For 1993 the team would have to endure a lacklustre Ford V8. The engine was throttled to ensure that Benneton had the best performing Ford unit, leaving McLaren outraged. When Senna departed at the end of the season for Williams it seemed he was abandoning a sinking ship.
As promising as the Isuzu test proved, the Japanese giant took a u-turn to focus on the commercial vehicle market. Thankfully the Chysler-backed Lamborghini V12 engine was already promised to McLaren for 1994 before any contract was signed.
Enter Peugeot. Recent rule changes in Group C Sportscars had engines homologated to bring them inline with F1 specifications. This meant it was cost effective for the French manufacturer to simply modify the engine in the back of their successful 905 and shoe horn it into an F1 car. This was the assumption however, and it was an assumption that Peugeot sport boss Jean Todt disagreed with. He was dismayed with the lack of investment into the program and left for many sucessful years at Ferrari.
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| Peugeot hoped to use a revised version of their 905 sportscar engine |
McLaren boss Ron Dennis still saw potential in being supplied by such an industrial powerhouse. At the time Peugeots arch rivals Renault were the dominant force of F1 powertrains. Dennis hoped this could spark an inter-French engine war to his advantage. Much to Chysler's dismay the contract was signed for the 1994 season and the Gaelic lion would adorn the engine cover of the McLaren.
Ron Dennis was eager for Alain Prost to drive the car that season and he joined the team for pre season testing in Estoril, Portugal. However after the first few laps in the car it seemed he was unimpressed. Worse still, Martin Brundle was next in the race seat only for the Peugeot to throw a conrod with such force that it flew though the sump and damaged the race track.
With Prost now out of the picture it seemed the talented Brundle would get his chance, finally at the wheel of a pedigree marque. However it became quickly apparent at the start of the season the engine still had a very dangerous flaw:
"The car had a throttle mechanism that was geared, and at Interlagos the gears kept jamming. So I spent the weekend flying off the road with the throttle stuck open. I was having quite a good race, and I got past people like Jos Verstappen and Eddie Irvine.And then it did its party trick of throwing its flywheel off, which it did on a number of occasions. Ron was on the radio saying. 'Try to get it back to the pits.'
And then I found myself in a gravel trap, and I couldn't work out what was going on or how I'd got there. I'd had a big accident basically, and been hit on the head by Verstappen's car. There was a big mark on my helmet, but luckily for me the rollover hoop took a lot of the energy. It was the closest I ever came to dying in a racing car" - Martin Brundle
And then I found myself in a gravel trap, and I couldn't work out what was going on or how I'd got there. I'd had a big accident basically, and been hit on the head by Verstappen's car. There was a big mark on my helmet, but luckily for me the rollover hoop took a lot of the energy. It was the closest I ever came to dying in a racing car" - Martin Brundle
This was a sign of things to come, with the unreliable unit being nicknamed a 'hand grenade' for its horrendous reliability. The first 2 races resulted in retirement for both Brundle and team mate Hakkinnen. At Imola a revised unit with more horsepower allowed Hakkinen a 3rd place finish, but for the rest of the season it proved troublesome.
At Silverstone the engine let go in spectacular fire-ball spitting fashion as Brundle began his formation lap. When Brundle returned to the garage Peugeot sport engineers carried out a post inspection and claimed that the engine was still completely usable and the team should have continued racing. It seemed politics and finger pointing were taking hold, as they failed to include in this press release the fact that half the oil was missing as well as severe fire damage to the bodywork and rear suspension.
To add insult to injury Peugeot were keen for their French accident-prone driver Phillippe Alliot to replace Brundle for the rest of the season. This enraged Ron Dennis, only conceding Alliot a drive at the Hungarian Grand Prix in place of Hakinnen who was sitting out a one race ban. By the end of the season with no wins and 17 DNFs, McLaren announced they would be parting ways with Peugeot. A new contract was signed with Mercedes for 1995 that would last for 20 years and herald a golden era for the team.
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| Martin Brundle and Ron Dennis |
Peugeot soldiered on, supplying Jordan with engines the next three years with some promising podium finishes. For 1998 they joined the new French super team of Prost, but both reliability and a poor car hampered decent results. A miserable 2000 season saw the team score no points and Peugeot finally pulled the plug on their disastrous foray. The engines continued to be campaigned for a further 2 seasons, being purchased by the Asiatech consortium with the hope of plundering the technology for a future Asian F1 team. Pie-in the sky thinking resulted in the failed project being sold back to Peugeot and later auctioned off.
 |
| The Prost-Peugeot partnership bought more heartache |
Thankfully things weren't all doom and gloom for Peugeot Sport who enjoyed 3 consecutive World Rally Championships from 2000-2003. Later in the decade they returned to top-tier sports car racing, taking on the might of Audi with impressive performances culminating in a win at LeMans in 2009. With the creation of the new 'hypercar' sports car class for 2022 Peugeot have renewed their commitment to top level motorsport, although the bitter experience of massive financial losses means a return to F1 is unlikely.
