Le Mans 24H: Comeback of Alpine

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In the Le Mans 24 Hours on 22-23 June 2013, the Alpine legend will be reborn with the entry of an Alpine in the LM P2 category by Philippe Sinault’s and Didier Calmels’ Signatech team: the drivers are Pierre Ragues and Nelson Panciatici.



The news was announced on Friday 8th March at the Le Mans 24-Hours circuit in the presence of Pierre Fillon, the President of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, Carlos Tavarès, Assistant General Manager Renault Operations, Bernard Olivier, president of the Alpine-Caterham Car Company, Pascal Couasnon, the director of Michelin Motorsport which will supply tyres for the Alpine, and Philippe Sinault, the Signatech general manager.

The Dieppe-based make, relaunched on 5th November last year with the creation of the Alpine-Caterham car company, has swelled the ranks of motor car manufacturers already officially entered for the Le Mans 24 Hours: Toyota, VAG (via Audi and Porsche), General Motors, Honda (with its branch HPD, Honda Performance Development), Fiat (via Ferrari and STP Viper), Aston Martin, Lotus and Morgan.

Nissan is also present as an engine supplier in LM P2, and will be at the start of the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours with an in-house designed revolutionary car in the context of the 56th pit, which prefigures an entry in LM P1 in 2015.

Since 1923, the Le Mans 24 Hours have been the greatest test bed in the world for the major motor car manufacturers generating a fantastic list of innovations, revolutionary when they first appeared, which are generalized today.

The participation of this Alpine LM P2 prototype in the colours of one of the major brands in motor sport is in the same vein.

While in 2013, the Le Mans 24 Hours are celebrating their 90th anniversary, the return of Alpine to the greatest endurance race in the world intervenes 50 years after the make’s first entry for the event, and thirty-five after the historic victory of the no. 2 Alpine-Renault A442B driven by Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud.

The name Alpine and the Sarthe Classic are indelibly linked, and the return of Alpine will enable French fans to thrill once again to the famous French blue colors.

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