Alpine “Confident to Continue” Mid-Season Form Improvement

The Alpine LMP2 team is “confident to continue” its mid-season upturn in form according to Matthieu Vaxiviere who felt the 24 Hours of Le Mans served as a turning point.

The Signatech-run team, which spent the previous two seasons in Hypercar with a grandfathered LMP1, returned to LMP2 this year as a stopgap before its upcoming LMDh prototype arrives, but struggled in the early rounds.

Its best result in the three races before Le Mans was seventh at Spa but the longest race of the year injected new life into the campaign, particularly for the No. 36 crew.

Vaxiviere, Charles Milesi and Julien Canal finished fourth at Le Mans before claiming Alpine’s first podium of the season at Monza and they are keen to maintain the momentum at this weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji.

“We didn’t start a new program, but we came back in LMP2 at the beginning of the year [and] just needed to build everything,” Vaxiviere told Sportscar365.

“The target for us was Le Mans. We were not 100 percent ready in Le Mans, but already it was a good start for us. We finished P4, which was a strong result compared to the beginning of the year when we struggled more in terms of performance and organization.

“I think [Le Mans] brought a lot of positives in the team. We were a bit more ready to go ahead in Monza, and we arrived with more positivity overall and less pressure. And we performed well.

“We are on an ascending line and the goal here in Fuji is to be on the podium, minimum, and to stay there for the last two races.

“The positivity started at Le Mans, so I’m confident to continue like this.”

Signatech Alpine won the WEC LMP2 title in 2016 and 2018-19 before graduating to Hypercar but it initially found it difficult to recapture that previous form and also encountered some issues, including an ignition coil change for the No. 36 car at Sebring.

Vaxiviere, who joined Alpine when it entered Hypercar in 2021, explained that the team struggled to get reacquainted with the Oreca 07 Gibson which has received waves of performance reductions since Signatech last operated it three years ago.

“The car changed a lot compared to 2018: there is a lot less downforce, less power, not the same tire,” he said.

“And the regulations, in terms of tire pressures. We needed to learn all of that. It was hard for us.

“Also our philosophy and preparation inside the team was so big for Hypercar, but we didn’t want to change everything.

“All the processes inside the team were really nice, but to put the performance and process at the same level, it was hard to find a good compromise. Now I think we have it, so it’s good.”

Vaxiviere Enthused by First Laps in A424

Alpine and Signatech recently concluded the first test of the Renault brand’s new ORECA-based LMDh car, the A424, at Paul Ricard with some of its LMP2 drivers.

Vaxiviere described it as a “positive first outing” despite some “little problems” and that the team has lots of work to complete before the planned race debut in February.

“We are working mainly at the moment on electrical details, things you have on the steering wheel, what you see as the driver and where you want the pedals,” said the Frenchman.

“Some little details of comfort first. And then, after, the behavior of the car a little bit. But it was mainly comfort inside the car and debugging.

“It was just to do some nice, smooth running, but not on the performance side. I was not speaking too much about oversteer and understeer [unless] I had some abnormal bumps.

He added: “In terms of reliability, we had some issues and problems, but it was just little problems. We never stopped for a full day – we had the running that we wanted.

“Overall, it was good. I’m really looking forward to the next one already.”