The Alpine Endurance Team completed their fifth and final on-track test in 2023 at Portimao with two Alpine A424 LMDh cars, totalling over 3000 km of combined running covered by all six of their 2024 drivers.
Alpine continued their preparations earlier this week for their debut FIA World Endurance Championship campaign next year, where they will enter a pair of new A424s in the Hypercar category.
For the first time, all six official drivers were present when the #35 and #36 Hypercars acclimatised 1,443 km and 1,562 km each, as Alpine faced no technical dramas which would have delayed their two-day schedule.
Each driver ran their respective share of long and short runs behind the wheel, with the aim on optimising engine and setup, in addition to the energy and fuel management.
The crews worked on areas such as the cockpit, refuelling processes, driver changes, pitlane and garage procedures with all the drivers.
Bruno Famin, Vice President of Alpine Motorsports, said: “The whole team has done a huge amount of work throughout this development period; we’ve come a long way since we first took to the track at Le Castellet four months ago.
“The two hypercars ran without any major problems disrupting the test programme, but there is still a huge amount of work to do, and everyone involved in the programme is doing their best to ensure we are as ready as possible for the season opener in Qatar. We will approach that race with the utmost humility.”
As wind tunnel tests were conducted in November, the homologation process continued in Switzerland, and is currently being completed at the FIA’s Valleiry facilities in France.
Philippe Sinault, Alpine Endurance Team Manager, added: “This test session at Portimao was an important step in our development programme.
“Our 2024 lineup was together for the very first time.
“I had no doubts about their behaviour and adaptability, and this confirms that we made the right choice.
“They settled in very quickly and are taking this project very much to heart.
“Nevertheless, development is far from complete, and we still have many hours of work ahead of us before the first meetings of the season.”
With the fifth and final test of the year completed, Alpine draw closer to their Qatar WEC Hypercar debut in March, with the A424’s chassis developed by Oreca, accompanied by a turbocharged Mecachrome engine mated to the Bosch specification motor generator unit.
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