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Audi slowed development of the R10 for the ALMS in '07, and we all know what happened there. Did it hurt them? Hard to tell. Did it help them? Certianly not!
Only when Audi started to race the newer 2007 spec cars did their fortune in the ALMS pick up and they started to win races again, and that carried though in '08, and they needed that against Peugeot.
Am I saying that Peugeot will fall flat on their face? No, but a lack of development on the car won't help them against Audi who have seemed to right most of the wrongs with the original R15 and seem to have a rejuvinated driver line up who have mostly been favorable to the R15(I won't name those who seem to have problems with it, but considering what they drove in the past, it won't be hard to figure out), and have got the people they need who got shipped to the DTM program last year.
I personally hope that a lack of development on the 908 doesn't bite Peugeot, but it very well may, since it seems that the R15 still holds the edge outside of Le Sarthe, and very little of what works there will work elsewhere, and even at Le Mans, the big one, Peugeot may be on the short end of the stick. After all, Audi took advantage of Peugeot/ACO pressue to address things that they didn't like with the original R15, and if it cost Peugeot, it's their fault.
And when one considers that Bruno Famin himself has stated that the 2010 cars aside from very minor changes(engine electronics, and other measures to get back the ACO's 3% power drop for diesels) are basically as for 2009, one has to wonder what Peugeot is thinking and is the 908 really still competitive, or did they cut development cost to preserve their 2010 program, which expanded into the LMIC?
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