After the reveal of its A424_β showpiece car at Le Mans in June, French manufacturer Alpine has ramped up preparations for its future with the LMDh built for the premier Hypercar category of the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC). Completing its first fire up on July 5th ahead of its first shakedown test, A424_β will hope to challenge some of the biggest names in motorsports next year.

Alpine has been working hard behind the scenes this summer, studying and putting the car’s 675bhp single turbocharged 3.4-litre V6 through the dynos and finalising its configuration thanks to exhaustive work with collaborative partner Mecachrome. The engine is coupled to an Xtrac gearbox, which recently arrived at Oreca’s workshops to be integrated into the first A424 chassis. The finishing touches were then applied after it arrive in Signes and the last steps were to finalise the assembly and validate the electrical, electronic and hybrid systems and the A424’s operating procedures, before being fired up at 12:15 pm on July 5th.

In addition to engineering, the team has also been working on completing simulator sessions to work on its onboard software and tyres before its first runs on track. An initial simulation of its racing processes that focused on the car’s configuration, data, telemetry and communications, was also conducted over two days giving the team much needed data and analysis.

The rest of the summer will centre around two shakedown sessions, both in August to ensure all systems are working accordingly and with the bodywork in its initial configuration.  

Alpine’s Racing engineers will team up with experts from their respective fields and before the end of the year, the car will take on several tracks including Circuit Paul Ricard, Motorland Aragón, Jerez and Portimão. 

Bruno Famin, VP Alpine Motorsports: "We are really looking forward to seeing the Alpine A424 on track for the first time. It will really come to life after months of hard work behind the scenes by the Alpine Racing teams alongside our partners. The programme is proceeding according to plan, with the first fire-up and our first simulator sessions. We are now entering a phase where the target is to understand our package so that we can fine-tune it, improve its reliability, optimise it in all areas and evaluate our different technical options. The steps we have already taken were only the first milestones, and the bulk of the work remains. The Alpine Racing and Signatech teams will use all their recognised skills to launch this development process over the summer and beyond."

Meanwhile, Alpine will also work on the car’s final homologation in collaboration with the FIA and IMSA, as its first start in Qatar on 2 March 2024 approaches.

Words: Mike Booth
Pictures: Alpine