Alpine Endurance Team ready for WEC Hypercar with A424S

WECHyperCar

Feb 13

The Alpine Elf Endurance Team in LMP2 ended its 11 years (2013-2023) adventure at the Bahrain International Circuit, November 4th.

The Alpine and Signatech teams took advantage of the winter to prepare their return to the premier Hypercar category with the Alpine A424, whose competition debut will take place in Qatar from February 24 to March 2, 2024.

November and December testing and homologation

First endurance test at Motorland Aragon

Alpine continued the development of the A424 with a fourth test session, the first in endurance format at Motorland Aragón, an interesting circuit for its straight where top speeds are comparable to those of Le Mans.
The objective - ambitious for a first - was to log 5,400 km in 30 hours. Although not quite reached, the results were largely positive, with 5,027 km covered. After the first eight hours with no problems other than a puncture, turbo issues, oil and water leaks as well as an electrical problem briefly interrupted the A424's fine progress as it completed the 30 hours.

In addition to assessing the car's reliability, the team continued to work on the general setup, to run in reprensentative race conditions and to improve its understanding of the Michelin tyres, in terms of getting up to speed on cold tracks and multiple stints management.

At the same time, IMSA official tests took place at the Windshear wind tunnel in North Carolina with a second A424 as the first phase of the homologation process.

Bruno Famin, VP Alpine Motorsports: "Frankly, all the team is delighted to have achieved this mileage in our first endurance test. It is a satisfaction that rewards the hard work of everyone. The main aim of the session was to test reliability by looking for weak points. We found several of them, which we will now have to address. And quickly as time is running out: there are 100 days until the start of the season in Qatar and we still have a huge amount to do, both in terms of reliability and even more so in terms of performance. We now need to analyse the data and learn everything we can from this session in order to make the most of the next one, which will be in Portimão in mid-December, to keep improving the car."

Two Alpine A424S and the complete line-up at Portimao.

Alpine Endurance Team headed to Portimão the second week of December for its final test session of the year ahead of its 2024 Hypercar programme. This was the first test session with two Alpine A424s and the six recently announced official drivers.

After its windtunnel tests in the USA in November, the A424 continued its homologation process in Switzerland. The homologation process is currently being completed at the FIA’s Valleiry facilities in France.

In total: two days of running focused on development with just over 3,000 km covered (1,443 km for #35 and 1,562 km for #36), with no technical problems significant enough to delay the completion of the work schedule.

For the first time, the presence of the six drivers in the 2024 line-up allowed the technical teams for the crews to work on the cockpit, refuelling processes, driver changes, pitlane and garage procedures.

The two days of testing were an opportunity to develop the homologated aerodynamic package, alternating between short and long runs with each driver. The aim was to improve the car and engine setups but also the interaction of the various systems as well as energy and fuel management.

Furthermore, the session also provided an opportunity to continue working on tyre management and evaluate the different compounds proposed by our partner, Michelin.

Philippe Sinault, Alpine Endurance Team Manager: "This test session at Portimao was an important step in our development programme. Our 2024 line-up was together for the very first time. I had no doubts about their behaviour and adaptability, and this confirms that we made the right choice. They settled in very quickly and are taking this project very much to heart. Nevertheless, development is far from complete, and we still have many hours of work ahead of us before the first meetings of the season."

Alpine Endurance Team’s ambitions

Philippe Sinault, Team Principal Alpine Endurance Team : « We are writing new pages in the history of Alpine in Endurance. We must be humble, but ambitious for this project. We have experienced big changes and a huge step forward as a team. Unveiling our Hypercar for the 2024 season alongside our drivers is truly a special moment. We will have to learn to exploit this technical package, rely on the experience of our drivers, be reliable and, of course, finish the races. I think it's difficult to say if we will be able to win this year, but we will quickly be hungry for good results with everything we have put in place.» Source: Alpine

Drives lineup

Alpine already confirmed the six drivers who will race from 2024 in its two Hypercars entered in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Alpine is counting on two crews combining experience and youth in its A424s sporting the traditional numbers 35 and 36.

📷 © Courtesy of Alpine. Six drivers lineups for #35 and #36 Alpine A424 in WEC Hypercar.

The first will feature Paul-Loup Chatin, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg, a trio whose speed has been unanimously praised.
Two pillars of the Alpine adventure in endurance racing, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere, will be joined by Mick Schumacher, who has a wealth of experience at the highest level in open-wheel racing in the sister car.
Reserve driver Jules Gounon will support this promising line-up by contributing to the A424's ongoing development process.