Alpine was two laps behind Toyota at the WEC round in Fuji, Japan – After a good season so far, disillusionment is spreading
Alpine has a chance to take the World Endurance Championship (WEC) title with what should be a discarded LMP1 car. For the best starting position in Bahrain, the French would have had to beat the local heroes from Toyota at the round in Fuji, Japan. However, a hammering in the Balance-of-Performance (BoP) threw the Alpine team far behind, which is why they ended up two laps down on the Japanese with the hypercars.
Nicolas Lapierre is accordingly served and disappointed that the change to the BoP caused the pendulum to swing so clearly in one direction at Fuji. Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere, who share the car with the Frenchman, are also downhearted, as only third place was actually possible.
That was also achieved, but Lapierre’s disappointment is still deep in his bones: “We expected the result, but we didn’t expect to be so far behind. We are disappointed to have been so far away. “Two laps is a lot for a 6-hour race. “
There was nothing strategically for Alpine either, with no unexpected situations with two yellows. “We had a lot less fuel than Toyota and so not many windows opened up for us. We tried to survive and do damage limitation in the title fight.” Even Toyota’s technical director Pascal Vasselon was surprised by the big gap between Toyota and Alpine.
“The BoP governs pure performance and that’s where all the cars were quite close,” Vasselon says. “Two laps is more than we expected. But our drivers were much more consistent in traffic and on the tyres. We also had one less pit stop, which we had anticipated from the beginning. Those six stints paid off in the end.”
With third place, Alpine is now level on points with the Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa in first place ahead of the WEC finale in Bahrain. Lapierre sees the Japanese as favourites when the eight-hour race in the desert gets underway. Still, he says Alpine wants to give it its all to keep its chances in the championship fight alive.
“Bahrain is a track that suits Toyota better because there are a lot of long straights, but everything is still open,” said the Frenchman. “As long as we have a chance, we will do our best. We know Toyota are the favourites because it’s been like that all season. But we have a chance and we are tied on points. We will try and fight for the title. “
