Alpine confirms Nicolas Lapierre

It would be surprising if Signatech-Alpine separates from its top pilot Nicolas lapierre. The former pilot of Toyota Gazoo Racing continuera de défendre les couleurs du constructeur français en WEC next year after winning the title this season with Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi at the wheel of theAlpine A450b.

“Before the 2016 season, I already shared a lot of good memories with Philippe Sinault and his team. Twelve months later, we have further enriched our common history! We will continue to work tirelessly to best tackle the challenge of the 2 LMP2017. I am also proud to continue to represent the colors ofAlpine », commented the person concerned.

Nicolas Lapierre had a lot to do with the success ofAlpine in the WEC since the No. 36 scored 4 victories and 7 podiums in 9 races.

“In addition to making the difference on the track with legendary overtaking, he was able to pass on his knowledge to his teammates, who were both rookies. After having won everything this year, we must defend our titles with panache and the continuation of our collaboration with Nicolas constitutes one of the first stones of the building and I am delighted about it”, declared Bernard Ollivier, the deputy general director ofAlpine.

Signatech and its crews will have to get used to the new LMP2 based on Oreca 07.

“Our Alpine A460 will be updated accordingly, always relying on Oreca's technical skills. Concerning the constitution of our crew no. 36, we will unfortunately not be able to renew the crew identically. We would have liked to continue with Stéphane Richelmi and Gustavo Menezes, but the regulations and the change in status of Gustavo, who becomes a Gold driver, will not allow us to keep these two drivers on the same car”, regretted Philippe Sinault, the Team Principal of Signatech-Alpine.