Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne will once again compete in the 2024 World Auto Endurance Championship (WEC) as a starter with Peugeot.
Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne will once again compete in the 2024 World Auto Endurance Championship (WEC) in the premier Hypercar category as a starter with Peugeot, the French manufacturer announced on Friday.
The double Formula E world champion (2018, 2019), aged 33, will compete in his third consecutive endurance season at the wheel of one of the two Peugeot 9X8s entered in Hypercar. Vergne, who drove for three seasons in Formula 1, from 2012 to 2014, will partner Dane Mikkel Jensen and Switzerland Nico Müller in the No. 93 car.
The crew of car No. 94 will be made up of the Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne, who was reserve driver until then and also had a stint in F1 (2016/2018), the Frenchman Loïc Duval and the Scotsman Paul di Stayed. “We are fortunate to have six very talented drivers, and we have therefore chosen to optimize car by car by grouping them by set-up affinities for the benefit of performance.», Explained Olivier Jeansonnie, director of Peugeot Sport in a press release.
Several other former Formula 1 drivers will be entered in Hypercar in 2024, including the British 2009 world champion Jenson Button with Hertz Team JOTA (Porsche), the German Mick Schumacher, son of the former F1 star Michael, with the French manufacturer Alpine, the Polish Robert Kubica aboard a private Ferrari or the Dutchman Nyck de Vries at the wheel of a Toyota.
In addition, Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcycle racing legend converted to a racing driver since 2022, will also participate in the WEC in 2024 in the new LMGT3 category. The 44-year-old seven-time MotoGP world champion, entered with the Belgian WRT team (BMW), will drive one of the 18 cars entered in LMGT3, which replaces the LMGTE Am category.
The world endurance championship, which will have eight rounds and will begin on March 2 in Qatar, will offer a tougher field than ever this year with no less than 14 manufacturers entered (including nine in Hypercar), a record in the history of the WEC.
After the return of Ferrari in 2023, big names like Lamborghini, BMW and Alpine are joining the championship this year.
