Montlhéry (France) (AFP)

The H24 Racing team will present a new version of its hydrogen car in September at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, four years before the entry into force of a category reserved for these vehicles, she announced on Friday as part of the 'a day of testing.

This team, which emanates from the "Mission H24" project between the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and GreenGT, took advantage of a test session on the Linas-Montlhéry circuit, south of Paris, to promote "this technology which is advancing rapidly".

"A much more advanced version will see the light of day and will be presented at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in September," said Jean-Michel Bouresche, director of operations for the "MissionH24" program and principal team of the H24 Racing team, who presented a first prototype at Le Mans last year.

PSA president Carlos Tavares has taken the wheel "in a personal capacity" of this LMPH2G, while Peugeot will make its return in 2022 in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) and in 2023 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

"I give a little of my time to this project when I can in a personal capacity but it is completely independent of PSA", he assured, specifying that the return of Peugeot in endurance "is not connected to that one ".

First co-driver of Norman Nato, LMPH2G performance development driver, Carlos Tavares then took control of the prototype for ten laps.

"When it is developed, lightened by a few hundred kilos, it will be a real racing car that we will all want to drive", analyzed Tavares, even if he already considers it "very convincing".

The boss of PSA does not rule out a possible investment by Peugeot in hydrogen in the future.

"Once we have returned to Le Mans with the hybrid, we can ask ourselves the question of what to do next. We will do two or three years to be sure that we are doing the necessary work in 2025. this question will be asked again ".

Peugeot, which had left endurance in 2012 for budgetary reasons three years after its third success at Le Mans, had to articulate its return around the Rebellion team but its Swiss partner announced in February that it was leaving endurance at the end of the season.

Carlos Tavares "regrets" this decision, but assures that it does not "call into question Peugeot's return to Le Mans and to WEC".

"We have both found other partners and asked some of our current partners to partially compensate for this departure", detailed the boss of PSA, adding to have found "more frugal and more ingenious solutions which have allowed us to lower the costs".

© 2020 AFP