Alpine moves into top Le Mans class

The Renault-owned Alpine marque will return to its spiritual home at the top of the sportscar racing tree as well as competing in Formula 1 next year. The make that won the 1978 Le Mans 24 Hours will enter next year’s World Endurance Championship with the ORECA-GIBSON LMP1 design currently racing as the Rebellion R-13.

The French manufacturer and Signatech, its partner in LMP2 since 2013, will exploit what Alpine sales and competition director Regis Fricotte described as a “one-shot opportunity” to race the car next year. WEC rules will give existing P1 machinery a single year’s grace to compete against the new breed of Le Mans Hypercars that come on stream in 2021.

No commitment has been made on continuing in the top division of the WEC beyond the end of next year, but Fricotte left the door open on the launch of the programme on Monday for a continued participation with an LMH or an Lmp2-based LMDH car.

“LMH and LMDH will open a new environment, so we will look at it and make our decision in due time together with Signatech,” he said.

“We have an opportunity now and we are looking at what is going to happen with LMH and LMDH.

“For the future we will continue managing the way we have managed in the past: we entered the European Le Mans Series in 2013 and then we felt it was good to move to the WEC a couple of years later. We want to take it step by step.”

The one-car entry will be made by Signatech, three times a Le Mans class winner in LMP2 with the make, under the Alpine Endurance Team banner. A type number has yet to be assigned to the ORECA, whose line of P2 cars have been rebadged by Signatech Alpine as A450, A460 and A470 (above).

Team boss Philippe Sinault revealed that the first test of the ORECAGIBSON, which will be a third sofar-unraced chassis, should take place before the end of this year. No drivers have yet been signed for the programme, but he said that he would be talking to the team’s existing LMP2 crew about opportunities for next year.

Rebellion Racing will not participate in the final round of the WEC in Bahrain in November if it is out of the championship hunt after this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours. “If there is no chance to win the championship, then we are not going to Bahrain because it’s an additional cost,” said Rebellion CEO Calim Bouhadra. Rebellion drivers Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato lie 38 points off the championship lead, with 51 up for grabs at this week’s Le Mans 24 Hours and 39 in Bahrain. A Rebellion withdrawal would almost certainly leave just the two factory Toyotas to battle it out in Bahrain.