Alpine can take on Toyota after sorting WEC fuel mileage woes
Alpine is confident that it has solved its fuel consumption issues and will be able to take the fight to Toyota in the final FIA World Endurance Championship race of the season in Bahrain.
The Alpine A480-Gibson was typically able to complete 28 laps on a single tank of fuel in the Bahrain 6 Hours last weekend, while the two Toyotas were able to go as far as 31 laps before needing to make a pitstop.
Having had a short break between the two Bahrain races to analyse the situation, Alpine now feels it can squeeze out an extra lap per stint within the limitations of its fuel tank, although this would still leave it two laps short of what Toyota can manage between pitstops.
“We've worked on [fuel consumption since then] and are still working on it,” Signatech team boss Philippe Sinault explained to Motorsport.com. “The target is to get one [more] lap. We could gain one lap after a compromise between performance and [fuel mileage].
"Until the middle of the race we were quite good [in terms of pace]. We played with [Toyota by rolling the dice] and after the full course yellow we lost 35-36 seconds [to get tyres up to temperature]. And then we struggled with Nicolas [Lapierre] during the two last stints with the tyre, with the rear tyre."
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley
Photo by: Toyota Racing
The French manufacturer was expected to run close to the two factory Toyotas on WEC’s first visit to the Bahrain International Circuit, with the fuel capacity of its grandfathered LMP1 car having been increased ahead of the previous Le Mans 24 Hours round in August.
Hotter temperatures in the Gulf nation should have also played to Alpine’s strengths, with the lighter weight of the A480 compared to GR010 Hybrid translating into less severe tyre degradation.
But come the race Alpine failed to mount a serious challenge to the dominant Toyotas, with Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere finishing a lap down on the winning #7 car in third.
The Signatech-run squad was forced to make an early first pitstop for throttle issues, now known to be caused by a “little stone” stuck in the pedal assembly, and later chose to make pitstops during two of the three Full Course Yellow periods to leapfrog the Toyotas.
But even when there were no outside factors at play, Alpine felt that it was unable to maximise its stint lengths, with the high temperatures having a detrimental effect on fuel consumption.
Asked if Alpine can realistically challenge Toyota for victory or second place in Bahrain 8 Hours with improved fuel mileage, Sinault replied with a resounding “yes”.
He, however, hopes that Alpine can beat Toyota on raw pace rather than relying on misfortune to strike one of the two GR010 Hybrids.
“I hope we can achieve P2 or P1 in a regular way," he said. "We never wait for some trouble with Toyotas to be performing well.
“We work hard on our race pace since this week, race and today. We don't care about one-lap [pace] in qualifying. We improved a lot so we will see [what result we can get] but in a regular way.”
Toyota has won all five races of the season so far despite being hit with a myriad of technical issues with its new hypercar, including at Le Mans.
Should one of its two cars win the twilight Bahrain race this weekend, it would make Toyota the first manufacturer to complete a clean sweep of victories in the top class since the inception of WEC in 2012.
Alpine is the only manufacturer that can deny Toyota that accolade, with Glickenhaus - the only other entrant in the Hypercar class this year - skipping both races in Bahrain.
The WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv. Click here for more information.
Related video
Porsche "not happy" with Ferrari BoP change ahead of WEC finale
Ferrari lodges protest against Bahrain WEC BoP changes
Why F1-snubbed Davidson has no regrets in retirement
He may not have won the Le Mans 24 Hours - falling agonisingly short in 2016 - and didn't get the opportunities in Formula 1 his talents merited. But after calling time on his professional career last month, Anthony Davidson says his pride in his performances with Peugeot and Toyota in LMP1 mean more than the results he achieved
Why Le Mans didn't decide Toyota's WEC title outcome in 2021
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez scored a second successive FIA World Endurance Championship title in the #7 Toyota, as its new Le Mans Hypercar went unbeaten. Motorsport.com recaps how each of the four classes in the 2021 season were won and picks out the best LMH and GTE drivers
The unanswered questions that define WEC 2021's controversial ending
OPINION: The deeply unsatisfying ending to a brilliant World Endurance Championship GTE Pro battle in Bahrain had Ferrari provisionally heading back from the desert as the victor. But Porsche plans to appeal the outcome, which rests on a number of confusing elements that have yet to be satisfactorily explained.
How the WEC's heavyweight duel reached its controversial flashpoint
The Ferrari versus Porsche fight for the FIA World Endurance Championship's GTE Pro title had been a finely-poised affair, right up until Alessandro Pier Guidi's punt on Michael Christensen in the closing stages of the Bahrain 8 Hours handed Ferrari a provisional title, pending Porsche's appeal. Here's how the controversy played out.
The remarkable fixes Toyota used to avert another Le Mans disaster
The 1-2 finish achieved by Toyota at this year's Le Mans 24 Hours was a result that will have surprised few, given its status as pre-event favourite. But the result was anything but straightforward, as worsening fuel pressure concerns required the team's drivers and engineers to pursue "creative fixes" on the fly. Here is the full story of how it reached the end without a lengthy pit visit
The 10 greatest drives of lost legend Jo Siffert
It's 50 years since Jo Siffert was killed in his prime at Brands Hatch. The Swiss scored just two world championship wins in a Formula 1 career spent largely with privateer teams, but showed on numerous occasions in single-seaters and in sportscars with Porsche that he could beat any of the best drivers of his era given the right equipment.
Inside the Le Mans finish too barmy for Hollywood
Team WRT has been at the forefront of GT racing for years and made a successful move to prototypes for 2021, capped by an LMP2 win on its Le Mans debut. It could've been even better had the race been one lap shorter, when its cars ran 1-2, but the stranger-than-fiction reality has spurred the team to reach greater heights.
Why Toyota's Le Mans victory was not as simple as it looked
Toyota scored its fourth Le Mans 24 Hours victory and a 1-2, with the #7 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez beating the #8. But although it looked straightforward from the outside, Toyota faced serious problem that had to be solved with some quick-thinking and ingenuity.