WEC: Vandoorne said goodbye to Peugeot and immediately returned

      Yesterday we reported that Stoffel Vandoorne will serve as a reserve driver for Jaguar in Formula E next season, but in 2026 he will do more than just that.

      Over the past six years he has successfully combined racing in the electric series with endurance racing, and has also worked with Formula 1 teams, first as a Mercedes reserve driver and then moving to Aston Martin in 2023.

      That same year he became a factory driver for Peugeot in the FIA World Endurance Championship and since then, together with his teammates, had been driving its 9X8 hypercars, until he said goodbye to the project on his social media pages on the last weekend of September.

      "That’s it. Last race with Peugeot done," Stoffel said after the 6 Hours of Fuji. "The team did a great job, its crews finished 2nd and 5th! Thank you to Peugeot for giving me the opportunity to race hypercars, and huge thanks to my teammates, Loïc Duval and Malthe Jakobsen, for the good times!"

      But Stoffel had no intention of giving up endurance racing and had been negotiating with a new team, Genesis Magma Racing, the works project of the Korean Hyundai group, whose GMR-001 hypercars are due to enter the WEC in 2026. It seemed like a done deal, but at the very last moment disagreements arose between the parties and no contract was signed.

      According to The Race, Cyril Abiteboul, head of Hyundai’s racing programs, did not like that Vandoorne did not want to leave Formula E and was preparing to become Jaguar’s reserve driver. The 33-year-old Belgian announced this rather late, but Abiteboul made it clear that he does not want drivers who will combine WEC duties with work in the electric series.

      It then emerged that Jean-Éric Vergne, a works driver for the Stellantis group, also does not want to compete in both series simultaneously, but is instead choosing Formula E, where he will have a lot of work with the new Citroën Racing team. He informed Peugeot Sport of this, which also happened after the Japanese WEC round, and the French team again turned to Vandoorne, with whom the split had been fairly amicable.

      As The Race writes, Stoffel will return to the wheel of the Peugeot 9X8 hypercar only next year, and in the finale of this season, which will take place in November in Bahrain, his place in the No. 94 crew will be taken by Théo Pourchaire.