Alpine A424
The Alpine A424[5] is an LMDh sports prototype racing car designed by Automobiles Alpine and built by Oreca to compete in the Le Mans Hypercar class in the FIA World Endurance Championship. BackgroundOn 5 October 2021, Alpine formally announced an entry into the FIA World Endurance Championship starting from the 2024 season, using an LMDh-compliant racing design.[6] It was also confirmed on the same day that Oreca was chosen as the chassis supplier for their LMDh contender.[7] Alpine unveiled a prototype show car, named the A424_β (pronounced "A424 Beta"[8]), on 9 June 2023, at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was also announced that the car would use a hybrid powertrain, consisting of a Mecachrome-based V6 single turbocharged internal combustion engine and standardized hybrid drivetrain components provided by Williams Advanced Engineering, Bosch and Xtrac, and that Signatech would run two cars.[5][9] The car is built on the "next generation" Oreca LMP2 chassis.[9] The A424's engine is said to be a "heavily modified" version of the Mecachrome V634 engine used in the FIA Formula 2 Championship; Alpine confirmed that the car's engine was unrelated to the engine briefly used in the Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 car in 2018. Dyno tests for the engine were completed on 28 June.[10] The car was first fired up on July 5. The program first completed 2 shakedown tests at Lurcy-Lévis at the end of August. The test programme then continued running at Circuit Paul Ricard, Motorland Aragón, Jerez and Portimão.[11][3][10] Alpine unveiled their driver lineup for 2024 on 22 November 2023.[4]
Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results(key) Races in bold indicates pole position. Races in italics indicates fastest lap.
References
|