ELMS – An important podium for Alpine before Le Mans

Signatech-Alpine was frustrated at the end of the 3 Hours of Silverstone where rain disrupted the event, forcing the organizers to bring out the red flag before the finish. The A450 driven by Pierre Ragues and Nelson Panciatici only took fourth place, a result which did not satisfy Philippe Sinault's team. The French team raised its head yesterday at Imola by taking second place behind the Oreca 03-Nissan of Thiriet by TDS Racing (Thiriet-Beche) with less than a minute behind. The No. 36 could even have fought for victory if a problem during its last stop had not caused it to lose precious time.

Pierre Ragues is in any case reassured to see the potential of the A450 confirmed before competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. “I took the wheel after a single stint by Nelson (Panciatici) while we had initially planned to do a double. We were a little apprehensive because we were still discovering the tires, the showers at Silverstone and the rain that fell during testing this weekend prevented us from validating everything. I am very happy with the times and the pace I had in the race. Tire degradation was limited and the car handled well. We were losing time by changing tires more often than the others and we needed to be fast on track. We unfortunately lost time during the last stop by having difficulty restarting but this kind of thing can happen in a race. In any case, we needed this result which was important for the team before Le Mans because it has been really hard for (Signatech) for several seasons. We will arrive with confidence at the 24 Hours. »

Philippe Sinault shares Pierre Ragues' impressions. But if this result is good news for Signatech-Alpine, the 24 Hours of Le Mans are now on everyone's minds. “We are in this situation, taking it step by step. We will be able to optimize our strategies after learning more with erasers. The enthusiasm is present among all our partners who support this project. It’s a great dynamic before Le Mans. We had the potential, but we were disappointed at Silverstone and in qualifying at Imola, and this result will count for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In comparison, it's as if we were having a regatta on a lake before attacking the Transaltlantic with the same boat. We have to review everything by putting ourselves in “Le Mans” configuration and that will not be an easy task. But the program is well established. We will carry out a night test session at Magny-Cours and will bring two cars to the Sarthe to optimize the running time to work on all the options at the set-up level which present themselves to us with the aero kit specific to the Mans which we will also have to test. »