A productive test day for Alpine Elf Endurance Team 06.06.2022: • The Sunday Test Day was the first on-track action of the 90th of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. • Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Matthieu Vaxiviere completed 84 laps of the Circuit de la Sarthe, covering more than 1,100 kilometres.

•    The Sunday Test Day was the first on-track action of the 90th of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.


•    Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Matthieu Vaxiviere completed 84 laps of the Circuit de la Sarthe, covering more than 1,100 kilometres.


•    The FIA World Endurance Championship leaders will be back in action Wednesday for the first free practice and qualifying sessions.


 


On Sunday 9 am, Matthieu Vaxiviere took the #36 Alpine A480 out for a first exploratory lap under cloudy skies.
The Frenchman then launched the team's programme before being relayed by André Negrão and Nicolas Lapierre. Matthieu Vaxiviere got back in the car and set the fastest time of the trio in the morning session in 3:33.793s.



After a lunchbreak hour, Les Bleus continued to work on all the vital elements needed for a successful display at Le Mans: race set-up, track and tyre changes, as well as fuel consumption optimisation.



The three drivers racked up the kilometres to gather valuable data while Matthieu Vaxiviere improved to 3:32.420s during his longest stint to place fifth in the Hypercar category.


The pace sped up, but Nicolas Lapierre had to cut short his final effort due to a red flag, which brought a premature end to the day.


With the lessons learned, Alpine Elf Endurance Team is now analysing and studying the data collected to head to the opening free practice session on Wednesday in the best possible conditions. The three-hour session will precede qualifying and the first night session of the week.


 




Nicolas Lapierre


"The Test Day went well, but it could have been more positive without the minor deficit in top speed that prevented us from really fighting with our rivals. Apart from that, we completed our programme with a mix of short and long stints without issue. We collected a lot of interesting data that we are now analysing for this week."


 

André Negrão


"The first day of testing went pretty well. We made the most of the eight hours by trying a lot of components. The track was really green so there is still a lot of time to gain here and with the car, which has been consistent and reliable. We are off to a good start in this busy week ahead."


 

Matthieu Vaxiviere


"It was a good day, but it was a bit frustrating on the performance side. We started with a fairly routine morning going through all our procedures. The team did a great job in both sessions to prepare us for this long 24-hour race, but we must still analyse and work harder on some areas. We will fight and we will not give up in any way."







Philippe Sinault, Alpine Elf Endurance Team Principal


"We have put ourselves through a fairly ambitious programme this year to ensure that we do not have any doubts. We did a lot of long stints, we did a thorough analysis of the tyre compounds available, and we made several component changes to ensure that they are all functional if and when needed.


The team did a great job because we did everything we planned to do. Today was also the first day of the implementation of the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans balance of performances in real conditions. Initial indications show our top speed to be substantially lower than our rivals, particularly on the Mulsanne straight sector, where the gap in this section alone is more than a second.



We will focus on this aspect in the next few days even if we are now at a stage where we are fine-tuning more than tinkering with the fundamentals. In any case, I feel the team is ready and determined to take on the challenge ahead."
 



Schedule


Wednesday 8 June


2-5 pm: Free practice 1
7-8 pm: Qualifying
8 pm - Midnight: Free practice 2



Thursday 9 June

3-6 pm: Free practice 3
8-8:30 pm: Hyperpole
10 pm - Midnight:  Free practice 4



Friday 10 June

7-9 pm: Parade in city-centre



Saturday 11 June

10:30-10:45 am: Warm-up
4 pm: Start of the 90th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans




Orianne Tamburini photos Alpine