Alpine is confident it can overcome the engine problem that resulted in the early end to its Le Mans 24 Hours assault in Sunday’s Interlagos World Endurance Championship round.
The French manufacturer has revealed that its two A424 LMDhs went out of Le Mans last month inside the first six hours as a result of a valve issue, a problem which Alpine and its Signatech factory team were aware going into the double-points round of the WEC.
No new parts have been introduced for the Sao Paolo 6 Hours this weekend, but Signatech team boss Philippe Sinault told Autosport that Alpine will “manage the engine in a different way to avoid having this problem again”.
He added that he expected that the value issue would not return over the course of six hours of racing in Brazil.
Alpine motorsport boss Bruno Famin revealed in the wake of Le Mans that the marque had not been “totally confident with the reliability” of the 3.4-litre single-turbo V6 developed out of the Mecachrome Formula 2 engine going into the race.
Sinault expanded on that ahead of the race at Interlagos, explaining that the valve problem had occurred in testing prior to Le Mans.
“We have had this problem before, but never so early — we were a little surprised [at Le Mans] to be honest,” he explained.
“In testing when we had this issue with the valve it was always after we had completed 24 hours.”
Sinault explained that new engine parts aimed at eradicating the problem are under development at Alpine’s Viry-Chatillon engine HQ on the outskirts of Paris and that he is expecting their arrival before the end of the 2024 campaign.
The #36 Alpine completed only four laps in second free practice at Interlagos on Saturday.
The car underwent what Sinault described as a precautionary turbo change.
Neither A424 made it through into the Hyperpole session for the fastest 10 cars in opening qualifying.
Mick Schumacher ended up 11th in the #36 Alpine, missing the cut by just under two tenths of a second.
Charles Milesi was a further four hundredths back in 13th position in #35 A424, both cars ending up within seven tenths of the session-topping Porsche 963 LMDh driven by Matt Campbell.
