Podiums, reliability, Le Mans… What are the objectives for Alpine in 2025?

Year II of the project Alpine A424 is now starting. The A fléché will compete in its second season in the premier category of WEC, in Hypercar, with its tricolor mount with Oreca chassis. Obviously, after a very convincing first campaign (4th place in the championship, a podium at the 6H of Fuji), expectations are high concerning the French manufacturer. To continue to progress, Alpine has not changed its organization or its LMDh, but has evolved in small steps. On the driver side, the recruitment of the experienced Frédéric Makowiecki, from Porsche, will be a major asset for the Blues. On the technical side, an evolution joker was used by the French clan to rework the Mecachrome V6 engine with a view to making it more reliable.

And what about the objectives for this 2025 season? Alpine wants to be very cautious and does not put forward any quantified objectives for their second Hypercar campaign with the A424. “Last year, the second half of the season was pretty good for us. We got a podium and finished 4th in the Constructors’ Championship, that was our goal. In 2025, the goal is to be better, we want to improve but we know the championship is very competitive. We want to stay humble, but obviously, we want more than last year.”, told Nicolas lapierre, sports director ofAlpine Endurance Team, during a round table in which AUTOhebdo participated.

Reliability, humility and opportunism for Alpine

Philippe Sinault, for his part, mentioned three essential points so that the A arrow can progress in the WEC hierarchy. "We have three 'rules': the first, reliability. We must finish all races, hammered the Team Principal ofAlpine. The second is humility, considering the level of our opponents. But be sure that if we have the opportunity to do better than last year, we will do it. I don't want to define a specific objective for this year. It would be a mistake to say 'We will finish 4th', or that we will do better than last year. Of course, that is our objective every day. (…) So the third [rule] is to seize every opportunity.

Doing better than in 2024, both in terms of performance and reliability, and seizing opportunities: these are the intentions ofAlpine in 2025. Doing better than fourth place in the championship means that the French manufacturer hopes to fight with the WEC's top teams, namely Toyota, Ferrari and Porsche. Moreover, the arrowed A would be well advised to take an example from the Stuttgart firm which won the Drivers' title in WEC (and finished vice-champion in the Constructors' category) for its second season in the premier class with the 963. Among the drivers, the ambition is similar: if no position in the championship is targeted, the two crews of the A424 want to fight at the front and why not, go for a first victory in Hypercar.

"We want to focus on getting the best possible result, said Paul-Loup Chatin, driver of the No. 35. We will do the best we can, extracting the most performance that the car can provide. (…) Thanks to the experience gained last year, we expect to perform better this year, but it is difficult to know how the others have evolved as well. It is impossible to tell you what concrete expectations we have in terms of position [in the championship], but we will try to get the best possible results.

obviously, Alpine will also be keen to erase the painful memory of 24H of Le Mans 2024, where both cars had retired before nightfall, each due to an engine problem. Convinced of the potential of the A424 on the Sarthe circuit, with a promising pace last year during the first six hours of the race, the French team hopes to have gathered the ingredients to perform on June 14 and 15 at Le Mans. But again, no concrete objective was put forward. Perhaps this will be a little clearer at the finish of the 1812 km of Qatar, the first round of the 2025 WEC season, which will take place on February 28.

Sinault : ALSO READ > Mick Schumacher (Alpine) : “The WEC is my number 1 priority”