Peugeot’s strategic thinking

[Plex]

American endurance races frequently require the teams to think on their feet when it comes to race strategy, an exercise in which Peugeot didn’t put a foot wrong at Road Atlanta…



The numerous safety car interruptions in the USA tend to close up the field at regular intervals, and the teams are forced to revise their pit stop strategies each time. At Peugeot, the man in charge of this aspect of the competition was the race engineer Christophe Besse.

Eight hours into Petit Le Mans, the N°08 Peugeot enjoyed a six-second lead over the N°07 sister car, while the chasing Audi (N°7) was third, more than a minute back and, more importantly, a lap down on the two French cars. The commentator on Speed TV wondered out loud whether Peugeot would fall into the trap and call both its cars the next time the safety was sent out…

The French team played it perfectly, however, by staggering the stops of its N°08 and N°07 machines. “We called the N°07 in, but the N°08 car stayed out. That way, if the safety came out, the Audi would perhaps be able to close the gap to the car of Gené/Wurz/Davidson, but it would still be a lap behind the Sarrazin/Lamy/Montagny car. If we had called both cars in and McNish had stayed out, that would have brought Audi back on the same lap as both our cars and our lead could have been reduced to practically nothing during the next interruption. The way we played it, the N°08 kept its one-lap lead, with the N°07 car providing cover,” explained Christophe.

As it turned out, there would be no other safety car interruptions and Peugeot went on to claim an emphatic one-two finish. “You always have to pay attention to the moment when the pit lane opens after a safety car is sent out. It stays closed until the safety car has picked up one of the class leaders. That means you need to know where all the class-leading cars are on the track at any given moment. Happily, we are helped by the fact that this information is displayed on a special page of the timing system.”

Lemanslive

[MG Man]

good stuff
I am always amazed at these racing strategists
These guys really are brilliant
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I know it's so, for I told me so