Habsburg to “Risk It All” in Alpine’s Final Planned Le Mans

Ferdinand Habsburg says he will “give it everything” and “risk it all” to secure a strong result for Alpine in its final planned 24 Hours of Le Mans appearance before the manufacturer departs the FIA World Endurance Championship at the end of the season.

The Alpine A424 has taken a best result of tenth in its two previous Hypercar appearances on home soil but Habsburg is determined to give the French brand a strong result with its upgraded car for this year.

When asked by Sportscar365 if there was extra pressure to perform for Alpine’s Le Mans swan-song, Habsburg said: “It’s hard to fill a cup that’s already full. Le Mans is all the pressure you need.

“Kind of no because you’re just going to give it everything, risk it all because there’s nothing to wait after.

“Also yes because we want to make everybody proud that put all the effort in the last four years.”

It has been an encouraging start to the Le Mans event for Alpine with Habsburg setting the pace in the opening qualifying session on Wednesday while it has also been in the top-five in both practice sessions so far.

Habsburg described the changes made to the A424 for this year after Alpine deployed an Evo joker as meaning the car “really wants you to attack and push and that’s really fun.”

“I don’t know if we are the favorites on pace but that doesn’t always mean you can figure out who is the winner,” he added.

“I think we know where we’re at and now you’ve just to play it smart and be joyful to be here, be happy, be grateful and to always believe you can win.”

However, Habsburg’s determination to succeed was at odds with Signatech team principal Philippe Sinault, who suggested a more cautious approach would instead be required.

“First of all when you’re there for 24 Hours of Le Mans, it’s always important so we don’t consider that we have some more pressure as usual,” he told Sportscar365, adding that securing a strong result “could be a help for the future” amid ongoing talks with parties interested in taking over the Alpine program in the future.

“It could be a danger to play it like this, we have to be focused on what we have to do.

“We know that we have a good package, a strong package, so we have to play this game.”

In terms of developing that revised package, Jules Gounon said the team had been working on it as soon as last year’s Le Mans race was complete.

“When we finished on Sunday night, we were already thinking ahead of what we can improve for this year,” he told Sportscar365.

“I know that my engineering crew and the Alpine team has been working flat out to arrive in Le Mans with an upgrade on stuff that were not working last year.

“I just hope that all the work we’ve been doing for one year is going to pay off.”

Da Costa a “Better Driver” After Spa Blunder

An example of the risks of pushing too hard came at the previous WEC event at Spa, when Antonio Felix da Costa dramatically spun across the track on cold tires at Raidillon when in the fight for a top-five spot and battling with the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyries.

However, da Costa said he is a “better driver” as a result of that error as he continues his first season racing in the Hypercar class.

“What happened in Spa at 34 years-old, it’s crazy how much I keep learning about myself,” he told Sportscar365.

“I’m human and of course I’m going to make a few mistakes along my road but when those happen to me I almost struggle with how to cope with them.

“I did kick myself in the head very, very hard after losing the car at Spa on cold tires [following a late safety car].

“My heart wanted to go to the podium and my brain should’ve said, ‘No man, we’re not ready for it.’

“I’m just super glad all that happened there — don’t get me wrong, we finished fourth in Imola and we were looking good for a top-five in Spa as well and for the championship that was a big blow for us and I felt terrible to throw a race away for my team. But I’m glad it was there and not here.”

John Dagys contributed to this report