Breaking news
WEC
Alpine reveals LMP1 contender for step up to WEC's top class
Alpine has taken the covers off its grandfathered LMP1 car for its move to the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Mar 16, 2021, 4:41 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Gibson-powered Alpine A480 will go up against a new breed of Hypercar contenders run by Toyota and Glickenhaus in the six-round WEC season, which will get underway at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in May.
The A480 is essentially a rebadged version of the Oreca-built Rebellion R-13 fielded by the Swiss watch maker until its exit from motorsport at the end of 2020, but Alpine intends to develop the car throughout the year with the French chassis builder.
The Renault-owned brand is continuing its partnership with the Signatech team with which it took three LMP2 class wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours, including two in a row in 2018-19.
Nicolas Lapierre, who was a part of Signatech Alpine squad during each of its three Le Mans successes, will reunite with the team after a one-year absence alongside Andre Negrao and fellow Frenchman Matthieu Vaxiviere.
Lapierre last raced an LMP1 car in 2017 as part of a two-race cameo in Toyota’s third TS050 Hybrid at Spa and Le Mans.
Negrao has been a regular at Alpine since 2017 in the LMP2 class, while Vaxiviere returns to the WEC full-time after largely sitting out the 2019/20 season.
Alpine A480 LMP1
Photo by: Alpine
“Happy and proud to be with you today for the World Endurance Championship season launch,” Groupe Renault CEO Luca de Meo said.
“We are very proud to be presenting the Alpine A480 to support our collars in the brand new Hypercar category, the very best of endurance racing.
“Taking up this new challenge shows how ambitious we are. Alpine has been back in endurance racing since 2013 and we’ve climbed our way season after season.
“Last time we won the ‘queen category’ was in 1978. That’s quite a challenge to live up to but I’m fully confident that the new A480 will rise up to it.”
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Corvette enters Spa, hints at increased WEC involvement
Next article Glickenhaus move "very important" step for Derani
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Rachit Thukral
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MotoGP
Qatar GP
31 min
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations
MotoGP
MotoGP
Qatar GP
22 h
Why aerodynamics will become "even more important" under 2027 MotoGP regulations
More from
Signatech
Farewell from WEC: Alpine A424 meets historic A442B predecessor
WEC
WEC
Monza
6 d
Farewell from WEC: Alpine A424 meets historic A442B predecessor
Could Alpine-Geely deal to save WEC hypercar programme fall through?
WEC
WEC
Barcelona
1 mo
Could Alpine-Geely deal to save WEC hypercar programme fall through?
Alpine boss Philippe Sinault on Hypercar exit and what it means for WEC
WEC
WEC 8 mo
Alpine boss Philippe Sinault on Hypercar exit and what it means for WEC
Latest news
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
31 min
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far
Formula E
FE Formula E 2 h
2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 2 h
Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe