ALPINE ELF ENDURANCE TEAM PUT TO THE TEST IN PORTIMÃO

After performing well upon its return to LMP2 last month at Sebring, Alpine Elf Endurance Team returned to the track for round two of the FIA WEC, intending to confirm its potential at the Autódromo do Algarve.

From Friday, the team and its six drivers resumed the in-depth work begun during the winter tests on the same circuit. After three sessions cut short by contact between the n°94 Peugeot and the n°35 Alpine A470, the crews moved on to qualifying with the LMP2 category demonstrating again all its competitiveness with the field covered by just over a second. Despite their best efforts, and a lack of traction on their second set of tyres, André Negrão and Matthieu Vaxiviere had to settle for tenth and eleventh place.

At midday on Sunday, FIA CEO Natalie Robyn had the honour of getting the race underway. Making the most of the two formation laps to warm up his tyres, Julien Canal made a superb start to move up two places to ninth ahead of teammate Memo Rojas. Diligent during their required driving time, the Silver drivers carried out their double-stints on a track where they quickly had to deal with traffic before Charles Milesi and André Negrão took over.

With new tyres, the two men increased the pace to close the gap on their rivals and battle with the WRTs despite a top speed deficit and a race tremendously unfavourable to strategic shifts. Shortly before the midway point, the team decided to install a new rear end on the n°36 as Matthieu Vaxiviere and Olli Caldwell headed out on track. After two stints, Matthieu Vaxiviere handed over to Charles Milesi, while Olli Caldwell put in a triple-stint to keep lowering his lap times and stay in contention.

The action intensified at the beginning of the final hour with the only safety period of the race. The incident with the n°4 Vanwall allowed the n°36 Alpine to close ground before the final sprint, and Charles Milesi took advantage to surprise the n°28 JOTA. After his last pit stop, the French driver continued his push to overtake the n°34 Inter Europol Compétition with 12 minutes remaining to secure ninth place, just over 30 seconds off the podium. Meanwhile, André Negrão finished just outside the top ten.

By finishing ninth and eleventh, the A-arrowed brand scored its second consecutive double entry in the points. However, the team remains determined to take a step forward at the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. This round, which will take place on 29 April, will be of the utmost importance as the final dress rehearsal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

QUOTES

André Negrão

"It was a tough race as we were off the pace compared to the category leaders. There has been some progress since Sebring, but we have to keep working to close the gap. Despite the challenges, we made it to the finish and that will be useful as we collected a lot of data which we will analyse in detail to be in a much better shape in a fortnight at Spa."

Olli Caldwell

“It was a tough race for us, but I think we can also take some positives away. I had a good battle for position during my first stint and I began to make some ground. It’s just a shame we couldn’t battle more towards the end. Looking forward to Spa, hopefully we can pull out some more pace in qualifying to put us in a good position to fight in the race. After we were forced to retire in Sebring, this is a step forward and we’ll be working hard to continue that as the season progresses.”

Memo Rojas

"Even though the result does not meet our target, we were more competitive than at Sebring. We managed to reduce the gap to the leaders, but we are aware that we still have a lot of work to race at the front. Despite the error-free work of the team, the race conditions did not allow us to exploit our strengths, such as strategy, but we will work harder than ever together to get closer to the top five."

Matthieu Vaxiviere

"Obviously, the result is frustrating because we didn't really recover any ground as the weekend went on. It was quite difficult for me to get all the grip out of the car in qualifying, and this race didn't offer any real opportunities to try anything. We will all work as a team to move on and return to positions closer to our goals as soon as possible."

Charles Milesi

"It was a bit of a frustrating Sunday. After encouraging practice sessions, the temperatures rose and qualifying was not ideal. We also expected a less difficult start to the race, especially in my first two stints. We made some adjustments by changing the rear block, which resulted in better performance, but overtaking in the field remains incredibly difficult on this track. We know what areas we need to focus on, but I also remember the positive points of this race without incident. It's up to us to do better in Spa!"

Julien Canal

"We arrived at Portimão with high hopes after missing out on the podium at Sebring. We started with the same base set-up, but maybe we didn't adapt it enough to this atypical circuit. We had to deal with some unforeseen reactions from the car, but we will do everything we can as a team to improve. This result is far from our objectives, but I am confident we can bounce back by working hard during this short period before Spa. We will come back stronger, we have the potential to do so."

Philippe Sinault, Alpine Elf Endurance Team Principal

"It was not an easy week on a track we had worked well during winter testing. Once we went on track, we had to deal with inconsistent balance in both our prototypes. The drivers managed to get by on one lap during extremely close qualifying, but we knew this would expose us on the long stints. We were in the pack in the race, battling with some category leaders and a crew that finished on the podium, but we were missing that little extra to make the difference. We took a gamble by changing the rear-end block to have a better aerodynamic set-up and capitalise on it in case of a neutralisation. The safety car came out quite late - too late - as the gaps were already too big. Overall, we are a few tenths of a second off the pace, which is too much in this LMP2 category where everything comes down to details. We're not satisfied with this result, but we know what we have to work on, and we remain determined for Spa."

CLASSIFICATIONS

6 Hours of Portimão – LMP2

1. United Autosports n°23 215 laps

2. United Autosports n°22 +0.684s

3. Team WRT n°41 +5.272s

9. Alpine Elf Endurance Team n°36 +37.835s

11. Alpine Elf Endurance Team n°35 + 1 lap

FIA Endurance LMP2 Trophy

1. United Autosports n°22 – 56 points

2. Prema Racing n°63 – 40 points

3. Team WRT n°41 – 33 points

9. Alpine Elf Endurance Team n°36 – 10 points

11. Alpine Elf Endurance Team n°35 – 1 point