Alpine Benches Da Costa, Makowiecki for Fuji

Alpine has confirmed it will go into this weekend’s Fuji round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Fuji Speedway with two-driver lineups for each of its A424 Hypercars, benching Antonio Felix da Costa and Frederic Makowiecki.

The French manufacturer announced the move via a press release on Tuesday evening, stating that Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg will race the No. 35 car as a duo in Japan while Jules Gounon and Victor Martins share the sister No. 36 entry.

Although no mention of Alpine’s driver plans for the remaining rounds of the year at Barcelona and Monza was made, Sportscar365 understands that neither da Costa nor Makowiecki will return for the two season-closing European races.

It comes as the Renault-owned brand prepares to withdraw from the WEC at the end of the year, with Chinese auto giant Geely having been strongly linked to a takeover of the Signatech operation that runs the outfit in recent months.

However, confirmation of the deal has not been forthcoming amid reported complications surrounding a wider deal with the Renault Group around road car production.

Alpine scored its first victory in the WEC with the A424 in last year’s Fuji race with Habsburg, Milesi and now-Genesis Magma Racing driver Paul-Loup Chatin.

After the first five races of the 2026 campaign, Alpine sits fifth in the manufacturers’ standings with a best finish of third place last time out at the Circuit of The Americas for the No. 35 car shared by Da Costa, Milesi and Habsburg.

Da Costa’s likely early exit from Alpine comes at a time the Portuguese driver has been linked with a switch to Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA next season.