Peugeot Sport was formed in 1981 under the name Peugeot Talbot Sport, after Jean Todt — a World Rally Championship co-driver for Talbot driver Guy Fréquelin — was asked by Peugeot to create a sporting department for the PSA Peugeot Citroën group. The rally team was established at 8, rue Paul Bert, Boulogne-Billancourt, near Paris.
The team debuted its Group B Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 in the 1984 season, taking its first victory at Rally Finland in the hands of Ari Vatanen. In 1985, Vatanen and Timo Salonen won seven of twelve rounds, giving Peugeot its first manufacturers' title and Salonen the drivers' title. Vatanen was seriously injured in an accident in Argentina in 1985 and was replaced by Juha Kankkunen for 1986, who delivered a second consecutive manufacturers' title.
The FIA banned Group B cars for 1987 following the fatal accident of Henri Toivonen. Peugeot then switched to rally raid, using the 205 to win the Dakar Rally for two consecutive years in 1987 and 1988, and then used the 405 to win in 1989 and 1990. Peugeot Talbot Sport also participated in the Pikes Peak Hillclimb Race in 1987, 1988 and 1989, winning the latter two editions, as well as returning in 2013 with the 208 T16.
In November 1988, Peugeot Talbot Sport launched the Peugeot 905 project, developing a sportscar prototype to begin competing in the World Sportscar Championship from 1991. The team relocated its sportscar operations to Vélizy-Villacoublay near Paris in July 1990. The 905 made its racing debut in the final two races of the 1990 season and finished second overall in 1991.
In 1992, Peugeot Talbot Sport won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with drivers Derek Warwick, Yannick Dalmas, and Mark Blundell. The team also won the 1992 World Sportscar Championship, with Warwick, Dalmas, Philippe Alliot, and Mauro Baldi contributing. The championship did not run in 1993, but Peugeot achieved a 1–2–3 finish at that year's Le Mans, with Éric Hélary, Christophe Bouchut, and Geoff Brabham driving the winning car. Peugeot Talbot Sport subsequently withdrew from sportscar racing. Jean Todt left Peugeot for Scuderia Ferrari.
Peugeot switched to Formula One for 1994, supplying a 3.5L V10 engine to McLaren. Poor reliability led to the relationship ending after the 1994 season, which produced 8 podiums, zero victories, and 17 DNFs. The collapse was attributed to Peugeot not providing the factory support promised when McLaren signed with them over an alternative Chrysler-Lamborghini offering. McLaren then moved to works Mercedes-Benz engines from 1995.
Peugeot subsequently supplied Jordan Grand Prix in 1995, 1996, and 1997, achieving 5 podiums as best results. Peugeot's best chance of victory during this period came at the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix, when Eddie Irvine and Rubens Barrichello finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Political pressures led Peugeot to switch allegiance to the Prost Grand Prix team for 1998, 1999, and 2000, in an attempt to create an all-French partnership. A revised agreement — established just before the partnership was made official — required Prost to pay for the engines rather than receive them free, leaving the team with limited finances. The 1998 season yielded a single point, scored in Belgium by Jarno Trulli. In 1999, Trulli scored a podium finish at the European Grand Prix. After a pointless 2000 season, Peugeot withdrew from Formula One following 115 Grand Prix entries and 14 podiums. Peugeot CEO Frédéric Saint-Geours stated at the end of 2000 that it was his opinion Peugeot would never again race in F1.
The Peugeot engines were subsequently purchased by an Asian consortium led by former F1 designer Enrique Scalabroni, operating as Asiatech. The engines were used by Arrows in 2001 and Minardi in 2002. Mark Webber achieved 5th place at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix on his debut with Minardi using these engines, an exceptional result for which the team was permitted to celebrate on the podium step.
Peugeot entered the British Touring Car Championship in 1992, preparing 405s for former champion Robb Gravett, running in-house from the company's UK factory in Coventry. The 405 never won a race despite four seasons of competition, before being replaced by the 406 in 1996. Peugeot handed the works deal to Motor Sport Developments for 1997 and 1998, but wins continued to elude the team; Peugeot withdrew from the BTCC at the end of 1998.
Laurent Aïello won the 1997 Super Tourenwagen Cup with a Peugeot 406. The Peugeot 306 GTi won the Spa 24 Hours endurance race in 1999 and 2000. Peugeot won five Danish Touringcar Championship titles, with the 306 winning in 1999, 2000, and 2001, and the 307 winning in 2002 and 2003. Peugeot also won the Asian Touring Car Series championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002 with the 306 GTi. From 2007, Peugeot raced in the Stock Car Brasil series, winning the 2008, 2009, and 2011 championships. In 2013, the Peugeot 208 GTi achieved a one-two-three finish at the 24 Hours Nürburgring.
In 1999, Peugeot Sport returned to the World Rally Championship with the Peugeot 206 WRC, under the guidance of director Corrado Provera. The car debuted at the Tour de Corse, with François Delecour driving one car and Gilles Panizzi and Marcus Grönholm sharing the second.
In 2000, Grönholm gave the car its first victory at Rally Sweden, and went on to win in New Zealand, Finland, and Australia on his way to the drivers' championship. Panizzi won in Corsica and Sanremo, giving Peugeot the manufacturers' title. The team retained the manufacturers' crown in 2001, with wins shared among Grönholm, Didier Auriol, Harri Rovanperä, and Panizzi.
For 2002, Peugeot signed Richard Burns — the 2001 champion — from Subaru. Grönholm won his second drivers' title that season, and Peugeot secured a third consecutive manufacturers' title. In 2003, with Marlboro as title sponsor, Burns was ruled out of the final round after suffering a blackout while driving to the event; he was replaced by Belgian Freddy Loix. Peugeot lost the manufacturers' crown to Citroën that year.
For 2004, Peugeot introduced the 307 WRC, based on the coupé cabriolet version of the 307 road car. Rovanperä took the team's only victory of the season in Finland. In 2005, Markko Märtin joined from Ford, but his co-driver Michael Park was killed after their 307 WRC left the road in Great Britain. Märtin subsequently withdrew from the WRC. Grönholm took two wins that season, finishing third in the standings. At the end of 2005, PSA Peugeot Citroën withdrew from the WRC; Peugeot did not return.
Peugeot Sport subsequently created the Peugeot 207 S2000 for the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC), run by Kronos Racing. IRC drivers' titles were won by Enrique García-Ojeda in 2007, Nicolas Vouilloz in 2008, and Kris Meeke in 2009.
Under new director Michel Barge, Peugeot Sport returned to sportscar racing in 2007 with the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP. The car debuted at the 2007 1000km of Monza, where Marc Gené and Nicolas Minassian took victory. At the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans, Stéphane Sarrazin took pole, with the #8 car of Sarrazin, Pedro Lamy, and Sébastien Bourdais finishing second behind Audi. Sarrazin and Lamy also won the Le Mans Series title that year.
At Le Mans in 2008, Peugeot locked out the first three grid positions but finished 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in the race. In 2009, under new director Olivier Quesnel — who also led Citroën Sport — Sarrazin set his third consecutive Le Mans pole. The team delivered its first Le Mans victory since 1993, with David Brabham, Gené, and Alexander Wurz winning. Peugeot scored a 1–2 at the 2010 12 Hours of Sebring, but reliability problems for all four 908s at the 2010 Le Mans allowed Audi to finish 1–2–3. At the 2011 Le Mans, the team was in contention after two Audi R18s crashed; a single surviving Audi finished just 13 seconds ahead of the second-place Peugeot 908.
On 18 January 2012, Peugeot Sport announced withdrawal from sportscar racing, citing lower car sales and the economic downturn.
On 13 November 2019, Peugeot announced its return to the FIA World Endurance Championship in the newly created Hypercar class for 2022. During the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, PSA Group CEO Carlos Tavares unveiled renders of the new Peugeot Hypercar. In December 2020, Peugeot and Total unveiled the Peugeot Hybrid4 powertrain, with aerodynamics developed in partnership with Ligier. A driver line-up was revealed in February 2021, consisting of Loïc Duval, Jean-Éric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen, Gustavo Menezes, Paul Di Resta, and Kevin Magnussen, with James Rossiter as simulator and reserve driver. Magnussen later departed to drive for the Haas F1 Team in 2022; Rossiter was subsequently replaced by Nico Müller for the final round of 2022 and the 2023 season. Peugeot earned its first podium finish in the WEC at the 2023 6 Hours of Monza.
In April 2013, the 208 T16 was tested by Sébastien Loeb at Mont Ventoux. The car is a lightweight 875 kg vehicle using the rear wing from the Peugeot 908, powered by a 3.2-litre twin-turbo V6 developing 875 bhp, aimed at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. On 30 June 2013, Loeb demolished the standing Pikes Peak record by over a minute and a half, setting an overall time of 8:13.878.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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