Alpine hasd unveiled its 2024 Hypercar, the A424_β, which will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship and at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next year.
The car, built by Oreca and utilising the French company’s next-gen LMP2 chassis, is named the A424_β. The beta symbol is to signify that this is a test year for the car, with Alpine Endurance Team team principal confirming it will race next year as the Alpine A424.
The car will utilise a 3.4-litre V6 turbo engine developed jointly by Renault and Alpine engineers at Viry-Chattilon and Mecachrome, which Sinault confirmed was not related to the former Mecachrome engine which was used by Ginetta in LMP1.
The car is due to be fired up on June 28th, with a shakedown to take place in late July. This will be followed by a test at Paul Ricard in August.
“Today we unveil the Alpine A424_β, the forerunner of our Hypercar designed to challenge the best competitors starting next year,” said Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi.
“True to our values, this new prototype takes the A-arrow brand into the future; while following in the footsteps of our creations, beginning with Alpenglow and the A290_β. The Alpine A424_β is racy, elegant and distinctive with its iconic and emblematic design.
“It embodies both our present and our future thanks to the involvement and investment of our designers in its development.”
The team, run by Signatech, as it has been since 2013, will enter a two-car Hypercar programme in WEC next year. The car aligns to the LMDh platform, and while Sinault says an LMH-rules car was considered, “for sure the option was considered, but quickly they [Alpine] took the option of LMDh,” he said.
One of the reasons for that decision was cost.
“It [cost] was one of the reasons, but also for the technical environment. Because the chassis was already ready. And for customer racing, LMDh is better, I think,” said Sinault.
