Alpine looking for the perfect ride

On the eve of the start of the race, each team is honing its weapons and refining its strategy in order to obtain the best possible result after the various sessions carried out since last Sunday. If the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus is banking on saving its running time so as not to wear out their parts for the double clock tour, Alpine hopes to have a smooth race in order to dethrone the speedsters Toyota. An outsider and opportunist position perfectly assumed in the French clan. “ Opportunism is a quality for me. We are the underdog, Toyota the favorite”, Philippe Sinault, the boss of the French team, told us. Same story with the trio of drivers. “ Internally, we know that if Toyota has a good race, we will not be able to go after them. We remain outsiders. We can do something if they have a problem, so we have to keep them under pressure,” thus estimates Nicolas lapierre, who knows the Japanese house well having been a pilot there between 2012 and 2014. 

The atmosphere remains calm in the French team as D-Day approaches despite the superiority displayed by the Toyotas in terms of pace. “ Everything went well. We always have a bad conscience saying to ourselves “It’s okay”, because we tell ourselves that we’ve missed something. We have done a good job, we know all the elements that we are going to encounter during the race, except for the unexpected and there are going to be some, that's what makes the charm of Le Mans. But we are ready, judge Philippe Sinault. Andre Negro adds: " The most important thing is that the car does not have any problems and stays on the track for the race. The longer you stay on the track in the race, the better.". Especially since the Toyotas experienced scares on the track, as evidenced by the 360 ​​of the number 7 during the last Free Practice session. 

Alpine doesn't want to force his pace

« I think we have a good chance of winning Le Mans although it will be difficult for us in terms of pace against Toyota, but we also saw that they sometimes have to fight to stay on the track. The race is so long that anything can happen”, continues the Brazilian. “ The Toyotas seem to be struggling with the brakes, with quite a few errors yesterday (Thursday)”, confirms Nicolas Lapierre in turn. “ We're not going to wish them bad luck either. (to Toyota), we will try to concentrate on ourselves and be reliable, to have a good race, to tickle them, that's the objective. A problem-free race should give us a good result, and if it's victory we will go for it.", adds the third driver of the crew, Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Concentrate on your own race and let the Japanese cars escape, a calculated risk for the French team. “ Our role is to run a perfect race. That means never entering the garage, that's the key, and having a good rhythm, avoiding pitfalls on the track, managing Full Course Yellows and Safety Cars well. This is our only chance to beat Toyota, confesses Philippe Sinault. If we try to keep up with their pace, we will do stupid things, which is not our role. This situation is sure to be frustrating, especially if the Toyotas start far ahead. If this happens, we will not increase the pace just to avoid it being a procession. If it has to be one, it will be one but I don't believe it. Perhaps I am naive enough to believe that it will be different from what we saw in qualifying.". Finally, and while it is customary to say that the 24 Hours of Le Mans have become a sprint, Alpine hopes to win the Grail by betting on an endurance race.