How far can Alpine go in the 24 Hours of Le Mans?
Discreet since the beginning of the season, the Alpines are impressive at Le Mans. The team has placed one of its cars in Hyperpole. A performance that questions Toyota.
Toyota has doubts. They wonder how Alpine was able to drive so fast during qualifying on Wednesday evening. The #35 secured its ticket for the Hyperpole thanks to the fourth fastest time set by Paul-Loup Chatin. And if the other car hadn’t exceeded track limits, the French manufacturer would have placed both its Hypercars in the Top 8.
A very impressive performance that Alpine congratulated themselves on Thursday morning. But a few garages over, the reaction wasn’t the same. “When we see people gain three seconds between the test day and the free practice… It’s not just about the set-ups. How much sand is left in the car?” asks David Floury, technical director of Toyota.
Behind the wheel of car number 8, Sébastien Buemi said he was surprised by the speed reached by the car at the Hunaudières arrow. The Alpines are very fast on the straight line. They do 13 laps, I wonder how it’s possible. There are guys, I don’t understand… The Alpine, it was a shock. They hid their own game. I had seen in Qatar that it was fast, but there…
Without actually saying it, several executives from the Japanese brand think that the BoP clearly favored Alpine at Le Mans. But they do not get carried away and wait to see the race. « It has to be finished. »
On his side, Bruno Famin, director of Alpine, considers it perfect and believes it should not be modified before the start of the double clock tour. And according to his own words, « no manufacturer has complained about it ».
Before focusing on the race, the tricolor brand still has to go through the hyperpole stage. Will it be able to compete with BMW, which was the fastest yesterday?
