There were a number of occasions over the course of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps earlier this month where Alpine Endurance Team looked to be a genuine contender for victory, only for circumstances to conspire to keep the French manufacturer out of the points-paying positions.
Alpine came out-of-the-blocks on fine form in the season curtain-raiser at Imola in April, with a competitive fourth-place finish for its #35 A424 prototype, and Les Bleus headed to Belgium aiming to replicate their rostrum result from 12 months earlier.
Both cars placed inside the top five in FP1 around the undulating 7.004km Ardennes circuit, before Jules Gounon topped the timesheets in the #36 entry in FP2. After Charles Milesi repeated that feat in the first part of qualifying the next day, Alpine proceeded to lock out the second row in the top ten Hyperpole shootout – the A424’s best-ever grid positions in the headlining Hypercar category, with the #35 a scant 0.078 seconds adrift of pole.
In front of a record Spa crowd of 101,606 enthusiastic spectators, Ferdinand Habsburg and Frédéric Makowiecki maintained those positions early on in the six-hour contest, with the Austrian going on to displace Loïc Duval from second into the Bus-Stop Chicane at the end of lap 14, leaving the Peugeot driver to fend off fast-approaching countryman, Makowiecki.
Habsburg then immediately set his sights on Will Stevens in the lead, but despite closing swiftly onto the Cadillac’s tail, he was unable to find a way past and shortly after one-quarter distance, the #35 Alpine fell prey to Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari.
António Félix da Costa kept the car up at the sharp end during the middle phase of the race, enjoying a spell in the lead as he stretched out an advantage of almost 20 seconds prior to handing over to Milesi, who lost out to Dries Vanthoor (BMW) and Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco at a fifth-hour re-start after finding himself compromised by LMGT3 traffic.
Da Costa returned to the cockpit for the final stint, but a high-speed spin on cold tyres at the top of Raidillon with less than 25 minutes remaining caused the Portuguese ace to swipe the circuit barriers, prompting a trip back to the pits for repairs and denying the #35 crew a top five finish.
“It was a disappointing end to a promising weekend,” da Costa rued. “We were not the fastest car out there, but we executed a good, solid race, right up until the last 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I made a mistake and I want to apologise to the whole Alpine Endurance Team, who work tirelessly day and night to give us a competitive car. The responsibility lay entirely with me, but we take the positives and look forward to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”
“I think we really deserved a better result given our strong performance,” echoed Habsburg. “We had such a good first half of the race, running consistently in the lead group. Everything seemed perfect until things became more chaotic, and we kept getting caught in tricky situations. It’s frustrating, but there were still many positives to take from the weekend.”
In the sister A424, Makowiecki lost out in the opening round of refuelling stops, before team-mate Victor Martins engaged in a close battle with pole-sitter Théo Pourchaire (Peugeot) and reigning world champion James Calado (Ferrari) approaching mid-distance.
Gounon subsequently had to complete an energy-savvy stint to avoid having to make an extra pit visit, with an ill-timed Virtual Safety Car interruption restricting the #36 Alpine trio to 11th at the chequered flag, one spot ahead of the delayed #35 car in 12th.
The squad will now bid to reap the rewards of its palpable potential on home soil in next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans (10-14 June) – the season’s flagship event, albeit one in which the A424 has yet to finish higher than ninth.
“We were obviously disappointed with our final positions in Belgium,” acknowledged Alpine Endurance Team Sporting Director, Nicolas Lapierre, “especially after our strong qualifying performance. We expected a better outcome given our pace over the weekend.
“Several minor mistakes at key moments proved costly, preventing us from challenging for the lead as the field closed up near the end of the race. That was frustrating, but it also highlighted exactly where we must improve ahead of our main goal this season – the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”
“It was a disappointing outcome at Spa, as our efforts throughout the weekend went unrewarded,” echoed Team Principal, Philippe Sinault. “We were fighting for a podium, or maybe better.
“Both cars were capable of finishing in the top five, which was a realistic goal based on our performance, but the safety car significantly hurt the #35’s prospects, and we lost two positions when a backmarker delayed us at the re-start. That left us vulnerable after previously managing our race precisely, before António’s incident and the resulting damage ultimately destroyed our chances.
“The #36 faced a more challenging race. The first Virtual Safety Car period, which began while we were pitting, was especially costly. We lost positions, and it became extremely difficult to regain ground in such a tight field. Although frustrating, there are many positives to acknowledge, especially our pace and competitiveness. We now need to regroup for the season’s most important race.”
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