Alpine’s Team Principal believes the French manufacturer must aim for a second consecutive win in Japan during this weekend’s sixth round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign – the 6 Hours of Fuji.
Philippe Sinault had to wait 343 days to see Alpine Endurance Team return to the podium in the FIA Endurance Championship. The famous ‘Arrowed A’ brand hadn’t flown the Tricolore on the rostrum since its triumph in the series’ milestone 100th race – the 2025 contest at Fuji.
That wait finally came to an end earlier this month in Austin, where Alpine placed both of its A424 Hypercars insde the top five at Lone Star Le Mans – a first in the history of the brand's Hypercar programme. “It was the team’s best overall result, and a clear demonstration of our potential,” Sinault told fiawec.com.
Right from the first free practice laps at the Circuit of The Americas, the French prototypes showed promising pace. Charles Milesi and Victor Martins confirmed the A424’s speed by qualifying respectively third and sixth in Hyperpole – and during the race, Les Bleus remained firmly in the leading pack throughout.
Ultimately, the Dieppe-based brand left Texas with a strong haul of 25 points. Only race-winner Ferrari collected more, thanks to Antonio Giovinazzi’s extra point for pole position. “It was rewarding to finally convert our performance into a podium and score important points with both cars,” Milesi remarked.
The #35’s French driver was beaten to the chequered flag by the #50 Ferrari 499P by a slender 1.116 seconds. Such a narrow margin leaves room for regret, especially given the late-race drama. Hampered by traffic, Milesi briefly lost second place to Nicklas Nielsen. “He pushed hard at one point, went off-track and collected some pick-up,” Sinault explains. “It took him two laps to clean it off, and we lost eight seconds in the process.”
After reclaiming second following the shock retirement of the leading #7 Toyota TR010 HYBRID due to a hydraulic failure, the #35 Alpine was handed a five-second penalty for an earlier unsafe release offence, relegaing it to third behind the #38 Cadillac V-Series. R.
Luck similarly evaded the No. 36 crew, who plummeted to 12th after pitting just one lap before a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period. “That was a heavy blow,” Sinault lamented. “Before the final VSC, both of our cars were in contention for the win or, at the very least, a double podium.” Martins forcefully proved that point with a breathtaking final stint in the sister A424, pulling off five commanding on-track overtakes.
The speed at which a potentially historic result slipped away in the closing moments served as a stark reminder of the harsh reality of elite motorsport – there is no margin for error. “We’re talking about eight and five seconds over a six-hour race,” the Alpine Team Principal notes. “That shows just how high the standard is. You really have to turn in a flawless performance to be eligible for a podium or a win, and that’s what makes it so exciting. If you sneeze, you lose three places!”
Sinault admits that Alpine hasn't always kept its nose clean this season. Before Lone Star Le Mans, the marque’s best result of the year had been a fourth-place finish in the curtain-raising 6 Hours of Imola. “We haven’t shown enough consistency,” the Frenchman acknowledges. “We didn’t put everything together during the races. It took us until mid-season to do that, which is certainly a bit late.”
Top speed will be a critical factor this weekend in the foothills of Mount Fuji. Japan's highest peak overlooks Fuji Speedway’s iconic 1.475km main straight – the second-longest on the FIA WEC calendar after Le Mans’ Mulsanne Straight. Alpine set foot in the Land of the Rising Sun on familiar, victorious ground, having won there last year with the #35 piloted by Milesi, Paul-Loup Chatin and Ferdinand Habsburg.
According to Sinault, there is nothing to say Alpine won’t have a chance to add to the A424’s list of records this weekend: “I’m not being falsely modest when I say that we’re capable of repeating at Fuji what we achieved at Austin. That’s why we’re going there, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be ambitious.”
Whilst bearing in mind the fiercely competitive nature of FIA WEC, the founder of the Signature Group – now known as Signatech – believes Alpine’s Hypercar programme has now reached a certain maturity. “We have reached a level of performance and consistency that should enable us to regularly compete at the front of the field. After three years, we are consistently vying for victory. It’s a real source of satisfaction, as that was the goal we had set ourselves. Even though we still have a lot of progress to make, we will never stop trying to stay at this level.”
In FIA WEC, staying at the summit is often harder than reaching it – and where better to prove that than Fuji Speedway..?
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