Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Nicolas Lapierre believes Alpine must aim to be able to compete with the top car manufacturers in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship in its second year of operation for the A424.

After five races this season, Alpine is fourth in the manufacturers’ standings, competing for the ‘best of the rest’ title with BMW, Peugeot and Cadillac, just behind the established leading trio of Toyota, Ferrari and Porsche.

The A424’s best result to date was seventh place in the opening 1,812km race in Qatar, taken by the No. 35 car of Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi.

However, Lapierre says Alpine cannot be satisfied with similar results next year, when the French brand will no longer be able to justify its market debut.

“T“The competition is really tough, but of course next year we want to fight for a place at the front,” Lapierre told Sportscar365. “We will be better prepared both in terms of the car and the team’s performance, and our goal will be to fight for the top positions.

“We know that Toyota, Ferrari and Porsche are extremely strong and have a lot of experience, but we hope that we will definitely be able to fight with them.”

Both Alpine crews put in strong performances at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the No. 35 car finishing fifth in qualifying and the sister No. 36 car, which Lapierre shares with Matthieu Vaxiviere and Mick Schumacher, narrowly missing out on a place in the Hyperpole.

Although both Alpines retired from the race due to engine failure, both A424s proved reliable in the following race in Sao Paulo, where the No. 36 scored the final point, finishing 10th.

Looking ahead to the season, Lapierre says Alpine has no set goals other than completing the remaining races at Circuit of The Americas, Fuji Speedway and Bahrain without any problems.

“For us, the most important thing is to finish the races and gain experience for next year,” said Lapierre. “For me, that’s the number one goal.

“We know the car is there, we’ve shown that in recent events. Of course we want to improve and become even better, but the most important thing is to finish the races. At the moment I’m just enjoying it and trying to gain as much experience as possible.

“Next year will be a different story with real goals and hopefully a step forward. This year is still a learning year. Even though the car is quite competitive, we should not forget that this is the first year.

“We are getting closer with each race. There is still room for improvement. At many tracks it is our first time with the car, but the team’s work is improving and we are getting closer to the top teams.”

Lapierre added that he was pleased with the consistency of the A424’s performance on different circuits in its first season, with only the second round at Imola – the only race other than Le Mans in which neither car scored points – proving more difficult.

The Frenchman believes this bodes well for a tougher challenge in 2025, assuming planned tweaks to the A424 engine work as expected.

“The car has performed quite well everywhere so far,” Lapierre said. “We struggled more in Imola, but that was more our fault because we had to manage the power, but everywhere else the car was quite strong.

“I think our car will be strong everywhere next year. The most important step we need is reliability and making sure we can drive without problems.

“It’s a very complicated car, we have to refine different systems and everything else, and it takes time to understand each trick. But we have already made some good steps this year.”

Jamie Klein is the Asia editor for Sportscar365. Based in Japan, Klein, who previously worked for Motorsport Network on its Motorsport.com and Autosport titles, covers the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship and SUPER GT, as well as other series.