[WEC] Alpine Hypercar Discussion

[broadrun96]

Well and they are going to NA market with Alpines so it's gonna remain. They aren't going to bring back Le Car over here, the 5 was not well received

[FIRE]

But the world is bigger than NA.

[Sodemo]

Originally Posted by FIRE

They are really pushing the Alpine brand. I mean F1 and WEC both with Alpine. Would be more logical to do one of these with Renault.

Yea, I get it and it makes sense to push their sports brand, thing is, I have never seen one on the roads - so they are hardly a volume car maker, nothing of the sort it would seem, so any potential marketing gains are going to be minimal, surely?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by FIRE

But the world is bigger than NA.

But the Alpine WEC car will remain an Alpine as they are planning an IMSA entry as well

[tomcug]

Alpine are planning US expansion for 2027 so the car will be badged as Alpine in IMSA for sure. And since they dropped the Renault brand in F1, it's no surprise they wanna focus on the Alpine brand in the WEC as well. What's more, "Alpine" cars were racing in LMP2 and LMP1 for years

[veeten]

And this is a good thing.

[Gerard C]

Renault SUV Austral and Austral"e" have already an Alpine badge on top of the front wings. As to the 5 Le Car I think it was received as the 4 CV and Dauphine before.

[veeten]

Interesting read about the process in homologation of the A424.

https://www.sportscar365.com/lemans/...-homologation/

[joeb]

Originally Posted by veeten

Interesting read about the process in homologation of the A424.

https://www.sportscar365.com/lemans/...-homologation/

I'd be interested to see how different the results are from each windtunnel. I know Porsche and Caddy have had to do this as well, just wonder if the respective tunnels generate similar numbers.

[tomcug]

Confidential data I believe

[veeten]

Lamborghini has, or will, go through the same wind tunnel testing to homologate their LMDh. The major one will be Aston Martin in late '24, the first LMH that will do so.

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by tomcug

Confidential data I believe

Everybody knows that everything is confidential…

[Mike E]

Alpine have completed a 5000km, 30 hour endurance test at Aragon

https://youtu.be/PI3oTySyQ54?si=65t2pqJpcBbN9C4j

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2023/...ance-test.html

[S griffin]

Well that’s a good start, let’s see what they do next

[PhilipR]

All drivers announced for Alpine:

Lapierre, Milesi Vaxiviere to be joined by Chatin, Mick and Habsburg

Quite a strong line up with question mark around Mick as we have not seen him in endurance racing before

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by PhilipR

Lapierre, Milesi Vaxiviere to be joined by Chatin, Mick and Habsburg. Quite a strong line up

Yeah!

[tomcug]

Hope the car is good too I wonder what will Negrao do now.

[TF110]

This is their first endurance test, but afaik, no other newcomers have done a 30hr test yet either. Time is running out for the new additions so I hope these guys and the others really ramp it up.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by PhilipR

All drivers announced for Alpine:

Lapierre, Milesi Vaxiviere to be joined by Chatin, Mick and Habsburg

Good lineup, I was wondering how much more pace-setting Milesi & Habsburg would need to do in LMP2 before being picked up.

Originally Posted by Mike E

Alpine have completed a 5000km, 30 hour endurance test at Aragon

https://www.dailysportscar.com/2023/...ance-test.html

Remember how vaunted Porsche's 30-hour test was compared to their initial race reliability? While it's obviously an important milestone, let's not read too much into it yet.

[tomcug]

Originally Posted by TF110

Unless thats for 2025.

Correct, however this isn't 100% certain yet as the company still has to make the decision. In 2024 Alpine will be racing only in the WEC.
I'm replying here not to make more off-topic in the BOP thread

[TF110]

Alpine was out testing 2 of their A424's at Portimao a couple days ago https://twitter.com/SignatechAlpine/...MgYHgRZWA&s=19
First time they've had 2 cars testing simultaneously. Looking like things are ramping up for the new season!

[Mike E]

Video from the latest test

https://youtu.be/9SdYJxilDkQ?si=E4AT__hhYolnHL0p

[Adam43]

The engine is fine. Completely up to the job. Perfectly suited to endurance racing. We’re not worried at all. No siree Bob.

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...bility-record/

[Mike E]

Livery reveal today

[Steve McQ]

Originally Posted by Adam43

The engine is fine. Completely up to the job. Perfectly suited to endurance racing. We’re not worried at all. No siree Bob.

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...bility-record/

Everything that happened in the past with this engine is not relevant, if it finally had the proper endurance development Ginetta could never pay for. Renault Sport (well "Alpine") are up to the task I think. Their track record weighs much more to me than Mecachrome's.