Guillaume De Ridder on the subject of Alpenglow: “We missed 30 minutes”

Guillaume De Ridder, the Belgian engineer involved in all the sporting disciplines of the Renault-Nissan group outside the F1 program, was delighted to be the main actor in a historic moment this Saturday morning.

It was to him, in fact, that the privilege of completing three laps of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit at the wheel of the Alpenglow, this prototype presented the day before by Alpine Sport whose 4-cylinder engine is powered by gaseous hydrogen.

Unfortunately, the Alpenglow did not leave the stand where it was on display to the public at the Six Hours. And for good reason: the technicians never managed to start its engine.

« It's really bad luck », explained De Ridder. “ The Alpenglow has completed more than 700 km of testing without encountering this problem. This Saturday morning, the window in which we could carry out the demonstration was very short because of the timing reserved for the Six Hours grid. It took us half an hour to figure out where the problem was coming from. Hoping that the public 24 Hours of Le Mans where another demonstration of the prototype is planned has a better chance than that of Spa this weekend. »

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