Alpine Plotting A424 Aero Overhaul for 2026

Alpine is plotting an overhaul of the aerodynamics on its A424 LMDh car according to its vice president of motorsport Bruno Famin, who explained that last year’s introduction of a two-stage Balance of Performance system in the FIA World Endurance Championship had a negative effect on the car’s low drag concept.

The French manufacturer is currently in the midst of its second season with the ORECA-chassised A424, picking up podium finishes at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps.

At the start of the season, it confirmed the use of its first Evo joker to carry out an update to the car’s turbocharged V6 engine.

Speaking with Sportscar365, Famin indicated that Alpine ‘of course are working’ on further updates to the A424, with an aerodynamic overhaul a significant part of those plans.

Famin explained Alpine was seeking to make these changes as its initial aero concept, based around low downforce and a high top speed, but had been impacted by the two-stage BoP system that debuted at last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

That system has been designed with the aim to further equalize the field by changing a car’s maximum power above 250 kph (155 mph), with Famin saying that that nullified the A424’s straight line speed strength.

“We designed our car to be quite low drag, low downforce,” said Famin.

“All the cars have to be in the performance window. The performance window is an area and you can be in one corner or another.

“Then we chose the corner with low drag, low downforce. Because as a main target of the season is Le Mans, of course.

“Then we homologated the car like that and after that comes the story of the dual bands, equalizing the top speed of all the cars.

“That means that the advantage of our car from the compensation of the low downforce was a good top speed. But now we still have the low downforce but we don’t have the top speed anymore.”

Famin outlined that Alpine plans to bring its aerodynamic updates to the Windshear tunnel in North Carolina at the end of this year before having them on the car ahead of the 2026 WEC campaign, which kicks off in Qatar in late March.

“We have to plan, we need to make sure that it works,” said Famin. “We need to homologate it and then start to implement it.”

Famin further confirmed that Alpine has moved to fully take its WEC engine program in-house at its base in Viry-Chatillon near Paris, which comes as the French manufacturer is set to wind down its Formula 1 engine program at the end of the current season.

In the process, it has effectively taken over engine building and development from Mecachrome, although the company remains involved as a “component supplier.”

“Since the middle of the year, a few weeks ago, everything is done in our factory in Viry-Chatillon,” said Famin.

“The building of the engine, the dyno tests on all of the small developments because it’s homologated and we can’t [change] much, but mainly still some reliability [work].

“There are always some reliability things on such an engine. Then everything now is done in Viry and before it was done by Mecachrome, which was one of our main suppliers on the project, but now everything is done in Viry.

“Mecachrome are still involved because they remain component suppliers for sure. But much less than before, for sure.”