Alpine celebrates breakthrough Hypercar podium
Alpine Endurance Team continued its upward momentum in the FIA World Endurance Championship at Fuji Speedway last weekend (13-15 September), with the #36 crew conquering a maiden podium finish for the Alpine A424 in the Hypercar category.
For much of the second half of the 6 Hours of Fuji, it was the sister #35 car that looked most likely to reach the rostrum in Japan, courtesy of a stellar stint by Charles Milesi, but a drive-through penalty for the Frenchman for making contact with an LMGT3 entry while lapping it thrust the #36 shared by Nicolas Lapierre, Mick Schumacher and Matthieu Vaxivière into the spotlight instead.
The latter had put the car 15th amongst the 18 high-calibre protagonists in qualifying – missing out on advancing to the Hyperpole shootout by a whisker over three tenths-of-a-second. When the race then got underway, Schumacher survived the Turn One mêlée that collected the #35 on lap two, taking to the run-off area in avoidance and proceeding to go on the offensive.
After overhauling Edoardo Mortara in the Lamborghini following an epic crowd-pleasing duel, the German similarly got the better of Jean-Éric Vergne in the Peugeot and Neel Jani in the Proton Competition Porsche before handing over to Vaxivière, only for the Frenchman to pick up a drive-through penalty for failing to respect yellow flags.
The experienced Lapierre was next to take to the wheel, with Schumacher returning to the cockpit for the final stint, showcasing superb speed to relieve Oliver Rasmussen of fifth prior to catching and passing the other Hertz Team JOTA car piloted by Norman Nato with just a handful of laps to go.
Not only that, but the fight for fourth had been turned into a tussle for third by a drive-through penalty for Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota. Schumacher’s dive up the inside into the last corner on lap 208 – allied to a strong defence down the main straight immediately afterwards – thereby secured the A424 its breakthrough Hypercar podium towards the end of its inaugural campaign in the category, following more than a year of development and hard work behind-the-scenes.
“It’s a positive result for the team and everyone involved in the project,” the 25-year-old acknowledged. “We deserved this podium after fighting so hard when success wasn’t on our side. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case [in Japan], but we still have to work on our pace. We’re heading in the right direction, and we want more. We’re all here to win, so let’s keep giving it everything we’ve got.”
“We’re improving from one race to the next, and we confirmed that again [at Fuji],” echoed Lapierre. “We’re gradually getting closer to the best teams’ pace, and we’ve enjoyed terrific reliability over the last three races. The team did a good job with sound strategic decisions and good stops at the right moments. Even though we still have much work to do for the future, there are many positive points.
With just one round now remaining on the 2024 WEC calendar – the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain (31 October - 2 November) – Team Principal Philippe Sinault professed himself pleased with progress, as Alpine Endurance Team aims to sign off the season on a high.
“For the past few races, the project has been characterised by good momentum, and this podium confirms that feeling,” the Frenchman underlined. “Right from our first laps at Fuji, we were in contention. The race was fiercely-contested, with a constant battle throughout the field among excellent drivers representing all the manufacturers present.
“We weren’t spared at the start, falling victim to a collision, but our pace kept us focussed and motivated. Thanks to the talent of our drivers, the potential of the car and the team’s commitment and hard work, we were able to achieve this fine result.”
