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Alpine A424

Sports prototype racing car

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The Alpine A424 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.

01Background

On 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. It was also confirmed on the same day that Oreca was chosen as the chassis supplier for their LMDh contender.

Alpine unveiled a prototype show car, named the A424_β (pronounced "A424 Beta"), 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.

The car is built on the "next generation" Oreca LMP2 chassis. 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. 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.

Alpine unveiled their driver lineup for 2024 on 22 November 2023.

A424_β show car on display at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans
A424_β show car on display at the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans

02Racing history

The car debuted at the opening round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship in Qatar, one of four new manufacturers joining the championship (the others being BMW, Lamborghini, and Isotta Fraschini). Two A424s were entered: the #35, driven by Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Charles Milesi; and the #36, driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Mick Schumacher and Matthieu Vaxivière.

The A424 placed best of the newcomers, with the #35 car finishing 7th, the only points-scoring finish of the new manufacturers. After Habsburg was injured in a crash during testing, reserve driver Jules Gounon stood in for the next two rounds at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps.

At the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans, both Alpine A424s suffered catastrophic turbo failures within the first six hours of the race, which forced them to retire, despite showing good pace. Work on engine upgrades began immediately after, and were in place for the Lone Star Le Mans, where the #35 car finished 5th, Alpine's best result yet. At the 6 Hours of Fuji, Alpine scored their first podium finish, where the #36 placed third. Another good result at the final race of the season, fourth for the #35 at the 8 Hours of Bahrain, meant that the team finished fourth in the constructor's standings.

Ahead of the 2025 WEC season, further updates to the car's engine were carried out, and the driver line-ups for both cars were tweaked: Vaxivière and Lapierre were replaced with Frédéric Makowiecki, a former Porsche Hypercar driver, and Gounon, who was promoted from reserve to full-season driver.

Alpine secured a first victory for the A424 at the 2025 6 Hours of Fuji. The team secured the lead of the race by only taking two tires at the final pit stop, leapfrogging Peugeot and Porsche. The win was Alpine's first in the series since the 2022 6 Hours of Monza.

03Racing results

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

(key) Races in bold indicates pole position. Races in italics indicates fastest lap.

Year Entrants Class Drivers No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Points Pos
2024 Alpine Endurance Team Hypercar QAT IMO SPA LMN SAP COA FUJ BHR 70 4th
Paul-Loup Chatin 35 7 13 9 Ret 12 5 4
Ferdinand Habsburg 7 Ret 12 5 7 4
Jules Gounon 13 9 7 4
Charles Milesi 7 13 9 Ret 12 5 7
36 9
Nicolas Lapierre 11 16 12 Ret 10 9 3
Mick Schumacher 11 16 12 Ret 10 9 3 9
Matthieu Vaxivière 11 16 12 Ret 10 9 3 9
2025 Alpine Endurance Team Hypercar QAT IMO SPA LMN SAO COA FUJ BHR 86 6th
Paul-Loup Chatin 35 14 13 8 10 18 11 1 11
Ferdinand Habsburg 14 13 8 10 18 11 1 11
Charles Milesi 14 13 8 10 18 11 1 11
Jules Gounon 36 13 3 3 11 9 15 14 12
Frédéric Makowiecki 13 3 3 11 9 15 14 12
Mick Schumacher 13 3 3 11 9 15 14 12
2026* Alpine Endurance Team Hypercar IMO SPA LMN SÃO COA FUJ CAT MNZ 66 5th
António Félix da Costa 35 4 12 6 10 3
Ferdinand Habsburg 4 12 6 10 3
Charles Milesi 4 12 6 10 3
Jules Gounon 36 11 11 10 11 5
Frédéric Makowiecki 11 11 10 11 5
Victor Martins 11 11 10 11 5

* Championship still ongoing.

Watch videos about Alpine A424Explainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Alpine A424, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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