Alpine Endurance Team Battles to Top-Ten at Le Mans 2025
Alpine Endurance Team returned to the 24 Hours of Le Mans determined to show the strides it has made with the A424 Hypercar since last year’s debut. The French outfit ran productive test laps before Mick Schumacher placed the #36 machine ninth and Paul-Loup Chatin put the #35 twelfth in Hyperpole qualifying, missing the top ten by 0.092 seconds. After a lively city-centre parade, Frédéric Makowiecki and Ferdinand Habsburg completed a fault-free warm-up that set the stage for Saturday’s 4 pm rolling start, witnessed by Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo.
Both blue-liveried Hypercars held station near the top ten until a battery-cooling pressurisation glitch hit the #36 and pit-lane speeding penalties struck both entries. Jules Gounon and Schumacher nevertheless charged on in the #36 while Charles Milesi and Chatin pressed in the #35, the latter serving a drive-through for contact. A lengthy safety-car intervention before half-distance bunched the field; once racing resumed, the A424s repeatedly set front-running sector times and hunted the lead lap.
Dawn brought fresh drama when Gounon slid the #36 into the Mulsanne gravel, then a full-course yellow forced an emergency stop before he handed back to Schumacher. Even so, Alpine’s measured strategy and faultless pit work kept the #35 in touch with the leaders, and a disciplined final stint lifted Chatin, Habsburg and Milesi to tenth. Gounon, Makowiecki and Schumacher fought Peugeot’s #94 until the flag to secure eleventh, completing Alpine’s primary goal of finishing with both Hypercars and underlining improved reliability.
Away from the stopwatch, the brand drew crowds with 70th-anniversary parades and Alpenglow Hy6 demo runs that showcased Alpine Motorsport’s hydrogen-powered future. Attention now turns to the 6 Hours of São Paulo on 11-13 July, round five of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, where the team aims to apply the lessons learned from Le Mans to achieve outright pace.
Ferdinand Habsburg reflected: "Le Mans is extremely tough and frustrating, even more so when you feel like you don't have the pace. On the positive side, it's great that the team never gave up, and that means you shouldn’t either. Although we showed some weaknesses and weren't as fast as we could have been, there's a strong spirit of unity. We're all in this together, and we fight together. That motivates everyone to come back stronger and do better next year." Charles Milesi added, "It was a difficult race. Overall, we lacked performance, but also lost time due to several unplanned pit stops. We need to analyse everything to understand where we lost time, including in comparison to the sister car. We have some ideas, but we need to confirm them. However, both crews managed to finish the race, and that’s a good thing." Chatin summed up: "I have mixed feelings because there is real satisfaction in getting the car to the finish, but also a little disappointment with our level of performance. A top-ten finish is a good result, but our ambition was a notch higher. That's motorsport: every race is different, and it's important to learn the right lessons to return stronger. There are many positives to take away from this experience. The team, engineers and drivers didn't make any major mistakes. We made a few execution errors, but they wouldn't have fundamentally changed the outcome."
Makowiecki drew valuable conclusions: "It was a very informative week. This race highlights what we are missing to achieve victory. We showed some pace at times, but we must learn to better understand the A424, prepare for it, and harness its potential throughout the race. The start revealed some issues that we hadn't fully anticipated. Despite everything, the team can be proud of getting both cars to the finish. That was one of our main goals; we achieved it, but we are aware of the significant work still to be done to become genuine contenders at Le Mans. We now have a year to work hard because these difficult moments are not so difficult if we learn from them." Gounon echoed the sentiment: "Unfortunately, we had a difficult race. We made small mistakes that probably cost us a top-eight finish. We could have hoped to be there, but in the end, no one delivered a perfect performance. The most important thing is that we finished the race, and it was great to see two Alpine cars at the finish. That's the positive thing to take away, but we must also analyse and learn from our weaknesses to return stronger next year." Schumacher remained upbeat: "The main goal was to finish the race, and we did it. We're racing with a lot of ambition, so I'm not entirely satisfied with our final position. I always strive to do my best to help the team as much as possible. They did an excellent job considering the difficulties and problems we encountered. I'm glad to be able to take a break before turning my attention to São Paulo, one of my favourite tracks, ready to move on!"
Team Principal Philippe Sinault offered perspective: "The results are mixed. We are pleased that both cars finished and managed reliability issues well, despite an alert that was handled perfectly by the team at the beginning of the race. Getting both A424s through 24 hours is no mean feat; it's a milestone. However, there is also disappointment. Given our level of performance at the end of the race, we could have aimed for a top-five finish without the small mistakes we made
and the issues we encountered. In this new era, every detail matters, as the gaps are so small. Nevertheless, this frustration is healthy. It motivates us to come back stronger. All the information we gathered was essential and will help us improve and continue to build something strong. Our next race is in Brazil, in a very different context. Before that, we need to digest and analyse the data with a clear head to move forward. We know that we are not yet in a position to compete for victory at Le Mans. That's a fact, so it's up to us to work hard to get there." Sporting Director Nicolas Lapierre concurred: "I'm happy that both cars made it to the chequered and scored points, but I'm a little disappointed that we didn't have the race we should have had. Our pace wasn't perfect, and we made mistakes. So, we could have done better, which is frustrating. That said, we learned a lot and gathered a wealth of information. We must analyse and understand it, but it will benefit the rest of the season and the programme." Alpine Motorsports Vice-President Bruno Famin concluded: "We didn't set ourselves a quantitative target, but we did have a strong qualitative objective: to continue building on the momentum we generated last year and finish the race with both cars. We achieved this despite some complicated moments. The team found the resources to react and fight until the end. It also shows we still have much to learn about the car and how it works. There is real, fundamental work to be done. We have reached a new level, but we still have a lot of work to do to reach the level we have set for ourselves: fighting for podiums at every race."
AF Corse’s Ferrari #83 took overall victory, while Alpine’s #35 claimed tenth, and the #36 followed in eleventh. Ferrari leads the FIA Hypercar Manufacturers’ Championship on 202 points, with Alpine sixth on 46. James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi head the FIA Hypercar World Endurance Drivers’ standings on 105 points; Gounon, Makowiecki and Schumacher sit ninth with 32, and Chatin, Habsburg and Milesi occupy seventeenth with eight. The Alpine Endurance Team will aim for a stronger result on Brazilian soil as the FIA WEC season gathers pace.
