Alpine are more prepared and ready for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, team representatives and drivers told Motorsport Week.
‘Happy and excited to be here, of course, like, every year. But this year, I really believe we have a better package than we had the previous years So obviously we’ve been looking forward to this this race,’ said Philippe Sinault, Alpine team principal.
Alpine updated their car for 2026 with a new aero package designed to eliminate issues the team had previously identified since racing the car starting in 2024.
This aero update was designed, like other teams’ updates, designed to work best at Le Mans.
“Most of the [test] day was evaluating tyres,” said Nico Lappiere, Alpine sporting director.
“That’s the big news from this year. So that’s still a big question mark. Especially looking at weather forecast, that it’s quite cool, for today tomorrow. But it’s gonna be a lot warmer on Saturday, Sunday. We’ve seen very different strategy in the test day regarding tyres.”
“We are focusing on the new package, the new aero package that we run that was designed for here. And it went pretty okay on the test day. So let’s see what it brings us when the track gets more rubber.”
The new tyre compound in the top Hypercar class is very different from years previous. It warms up quicker and has more grip available, meaning drivers don’t have to tiptoe around on cold tyres leaving the pits any more, attempting to generate heat while also trying not to crash.
But, with cold temperatures expected for practice and qualifying, the teams have been preparing for this by doing work during test day and practice.
“The main difference in the aero package. Clearly last year we suffered with the aero balance,” said Lapierre in response to a question from Motorsport Week
“So we used an evo performance joker to reset the aero balance. It seems that it’s been working pretty well on the test day. We don’t know what the others are doing, but the feeling from the drivers and engineers is pretty positive so far.”
Alpine’s aero update has resolved ‘tyre shattering’
To get a bit more detail on how this has changed the car’s characteristics around Circuit de la Sarthe, we spoke to #35 Alpine driver Charles Milesi to understand more.
“Basically on the last two years and not only in Le Mans, but on other tracks we had issues with ‘shattering’,” said the Frenchman.
“Because we were starting to lose some temperature on the front tyres, which was due to a lack of aero balance to the front. That’s something that we were able to to completely erase with the new package. So we have definitely more downforce, but most important is that we have a lot more aero balance to the front.”
‘Shattering’, Milesi said, is when the tyre vibrates when steering angle is put through it.
“Shattering is when the tyres start to vibrate, when you put steering angle, the tyre will start to shake a bit. And they will just slide on the tarmac. So it creates this kind of shattering where the tire is sliding on on the asphalt.”
The new update eliminates this, though, giving the drivers a lot more confidence and consistency, as Milesi alluded to.
“I think what we were lacking sometimes was consistency, because maybe on the first lap of the stint, we could be quite quick and then we’ll lose some performance because we start to lose some grip on the front and have some shattering,” he said.
Alpine also understand more about their car than they have in the past, which is contributing to their quiet confidence for this year.
“I think also in terms of pure mechanical setting in the car, we made some good changes, that weren’t part of the update. It’s just an understanding of how the car can work better. But yeah I think the feeling in the car, it doesn’t change like massively, it’s not like the car is completely different to drive. It’s the same feeling, just better in every way,” finished the red-haired Frenchman.
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