MP 1372: Peugeot 908 LMP1 Memories with Bourdais and Pagenaud

Team building or team destruction? The most dangerous part of Peugeot’s former factory 908 HDi FAP factory LMP1 program wasn’t the driving; it was the pre-season team building events where bruises and broken bones were the norm, as Sebastien Bourdais and Simon Pagenaud share in Part 2 of our lookback on the great French endurance racing program that ran from 2007-2011.

“It’s OK, you’re not going to die alone,” Bourdais said of one harrowing team exercise. The on-track action was also no picnic.

To start, factory driver Franck Montagny, frequently mentioned as the center of Peugeot-related mayhem, hit a cat at 205mph while testing and the results weren’t pleasant…

They loved the original 908 model which ran through 2010: “It was just a perfect car,” Pagenaud said. The all-new car for 2011? “It was difficult,” he continued. “It was very pointy to drive. Man, the V8 diesel was a lot more vibration than the V12.”

And how about another Montagny tale of ‘Days of Thunder’ rental car racing on the highway to get to the airport after testing at Monza? Then there was the time Pagenaud threw up in the morning at Le Mans… And how much money did(n’t) Peugeot pay Bourdais, its big national star?

Take a listen to the conversation, and below, we have Part 1 with Bourdais, Anthony Davidson, and Pedro Lamy.

[SPF]