Alpine Yet to Decide Driver Lineup For Rest of Season

Alpine team principal Philippe Sinault says the team has yet to decide on its driver lineup for the final two rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship season after reducing to two drivers per car for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji.

It was revealed earlier this week that Antonio Felix da Costa and Frederic Makowiecki would not be piloting the Alpine A424s for the Japanese round with Sinault explaining the decision was made because the team believes that having only two drivers is the optimal approach for six-hour races.

But he added that deciding which four drivers to field in Japan was “really difficult”.

“We talked about it with my technical staff for a long time, Nicolas Lapierre [sporting director] also, because from our point of view, a six-hour race the format with two drivers is the best one,” Sinault told Sportscar365.

“We’ve not considered this before because we were preparing 24 Hours of Le Mans and because you have Qatar 10 hours and Bahrain 8 Hours so we don’t want to always change between having two drivers and three drivers [per car].

“But, with the announcement of the new calendar, with only six-hour races until the end of the season, it was the time to test and put in place for our point of view the best format to perform and have a good result.”

Sinault also denied that it had been a late decision to run with just two drivers per car in Fuji.

“If we take this type of decision, it’s impossible to take this decision at the last moment because you have to prepare everything:  the team, the process, and to well prepare the race,” he added.

“We were well prepared for the race — we made the announcement for the driver, for the team and for the mechanics at the right time in order to well operate this option.”

Sinault stressed that da Costa and Makowiecki remain Alpine drivers and are “still in the team,” despite missing out on competing in Fuji, adding that further tweaks to the lineups could follow.

“We will see after Fuji and we will consider the lineup — if we conserve the two drivers or if we come back (to three) and, after, which drivers will drive for Barcelona and Monza,” he said. “It’s not decided at the moment.”

When asked why da Costa and Makowiecki were the ones chosen to miss out, Sinault added: “It’s not a personal reason, it’s a global reason — we take into consideration a lot of things. Maybe for Barcelona, it will be different.”

Sinault Tight-Lipped as Geely Deal Negotiations Continue

Sinault also said there had been no update on the future of the team amid speculation that Geely could take over the Signatech-run Alpine operation for next year.

Alpine announced on the eve of this season that it would be withdrawing from the WEC at the end of the campaign.

Since then Sinault has held talks with various parties about taking over the project but, despite earlier in the year saying he wanted the team’s future to be resolved by the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the situation currently remains uncertain.

Sinault simply said “discussions are going on” and that there is “nothing clear” at the moment about the 2027 season.

When asked about the timeframe in which a decision needs to be made, he replied: “The ultimate date for registration is Nov. 26. My job is to be ready as soon as possible.

“We expect good news and an announcement as soon as possible.”

In the meantime, Alpine is preparing for this weekend’s Fuji contest, the scene of its sole Hypercar victory to date last year, and began the event by setting the pace in Free Practice 2 on Friday.

Jamie Klein contributed to this report