Alpine has completed the first on-track test for the Alpine A424 Hypercar at Circuit Paul Ricard, the first of four testing venues in the upcoming months.
The first circuit laps were turned for the Alpine A424, which was unveiled at Le Mans as the French marque’s entry into the 2024 World Endurance Championship, and the Hypercar category.
At the beginning of August, current Alpine Elf Endurance driver Nicolas Lapierre drove an initial low-speed run in a shakedown session.
Their time at Le Castellet began similarly with a shakedown on Monday 21 August at the airport in order to check the safety functions were operational.
On the next day, more prominent work took place with a series of short runs which assessed the gearbox, brakes and cooling system, amid a notable heatwave in France.
The Mecachrome-derived single-turbocharged 3.4 litre V6 was given attention regarding engine mapping.
Bruno Famin, Vice President of Alpine Motorsports, said: “This first session is the culmination of months of work by the Alpine Racing teams and our partners. Our initial assessment is satisfactory, with a fairly high mileage that has enabled us to conduct our programme step by step.
“In these early stages of development, the priorities are to validate the fundamental systems and work on reliability whilst beginning to fine-tune the prototype.
“The drivers were fairly happy with the car, although there were some difficult points, which we are already working on in preparation for the next tests.
“But we have to be realistic: the work has only just begun. We still have a huge amount of work to do in an extremely short timespan before our first race.”
Furthermore, in the afternoon of Wednesday 23 August, a continued focus on software and mapping carried over from the previous day.
On Thursday, their final day of testing at Le Castellet, there was a focus on longer track runs for the A424.
It covered just over 1000 km in total, marking a productive, incident-free outing as the team began to gather useful data.
Three active Alpine-Signatech Endurance drivers drove across the week: Nicolas Lapierre (Monday and Tuesday), Matthieu Vaxiviere (Wednesday and Thursday) and Charles Milesi (Thursday).
Philippe Sinault, Alpine Elf Endurance Team Principal, added:
“For the first time in our history, we have the opportunity to be involved in such a large-scale project right from the start.
“Seeing the A424 take to the track for the first time was a real thrill.
“This project also brings its share of challenges, as the Alpine Racing teams and our own are working together to get the most out of the Alpine A424.
“The first overall impression is rather positive, and the absence of blocking problems since the first laps has enabled us to get to know the car fairly quickly. Our knowledge of the car will grow as the development tests continue.
“The next six months will certainly be intense until our first race in Qatar, but everyone in the team is more than motivated to rise to the challenge.”
The next test session for the Alpine A424 will take place next month at Circuit Motorland Aragon, Spain.
