Peugeot Motorcycles To Debut Soon

Peugeot Motorcycles will make its debut on the Moto3 grid in the 2016 season. Two Peugeot MGP3O machines are set to be campaigned by the Saxoprint Racing Team Germany and will see French rider Alexis Masbou and 21-year-old Scot John McPhee riding these machines. Mahindra acquired a 51 per cent stake in Peugeot Motocycles in 2014 and the Mahindra-Peugeot partnership has seen a lot of success when its MGP3O racer took the Riders' and Constructors' titles in the Italian CIV Moto3 championship.



"We are delighted to add a Peugeot Motocycles entry to our Moto3 line-up for 2016 and are looking forward to next season being the biggest and most successful so far for Mahindra Racing," affirmed Ruzbeh Irani, Mahindra Racing Chairman and Mahindra's President (Group Communications & Ethics) and Chief Brand Officer. Mahindra Racing CEO Mufaddal Choonia added, “We are a growing force in the Moto3 paddock, and the addition of the Peugeot Motocycles entry to our line-up will have a number of technical benefits for Mahindra as well as brand benefits for Peugeot Motocycles. I am confident that the extensive work that we are undertaking on the MGP3O at our new technical centre in Italy will result in greater on-track success for both Mahindra Racing and Peugeot Motocycles.”



The Peugeot MGP3O will share its mechanical DNA with the Mahindra Racing bikes on the grid, but Peugeot Motocycles will contest the series as a Constructor. The addition of the two Peugeot racers further underlines the growing presence of Mahindra in international motorcycle racing. The only Indian constructor in MotoGP will continue to run programmes in the CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship and the Italian CIV series. In the 2016 season of Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, the Peugeot MGP3O will compete as a constructor in its own right despite sharing the mechanical DNA with the Mahindra Racong bikes on the grid.

Mahindra’s campaign with Peugeot will be their second stint in Moto3. The Indian brand started its campaign in 2011 with the Moto125 championship and continued till 2014. Although this year, Mahindra didn’t quite have their own team, it entered the championship as a full scale independent constructor supporting four teams on the grid.