Alpine Endurance Team joins the title fight after P4 finish at the 6 Hours of Imola

A strong season start for the Alpine Endurance Team at the 6 Hours of Imola, finishing in fourth place in the Hypercar class with the No. 35 car. The solid performance is a positive sign for the António Félix da Costa/Charles Milesi/Ferdinand Habsburg trio in the battle for the drivers’ championship.

A mix of emotions for the French team at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, as the No. 36 prototype driven by Frédéric Makowiecki, Jules Gounon and Victor Martins finished only in the eleventh position. The result places Alpine fourth in the manufacturers’ standings with 14 points.

In the race, the opening stint was handled by Habsburg (No. 35) and Makowiecki (No. 36), both on Michelin soft tires, focusing on a more aggressive strategy. While the Austrian driver made progress against Toyota and Peugeot at the front, Frédéric kept battling for the top ten.

With the first Virtual Safety Car, the team changed Ferdinand’s strategy, which later proved to be the right call before the driver handed the car over to his Portuguese teammate Félix da Costa.

In the No. 36 Alpine, Makowiecki stepped aside for Victor Martins to take over and make his debut in the top class of international endurance racing. The young Frenchman even set the provisional fastest lap but soon after had to serve a drive-through penalty for infringing VSC procedures, resulting in a loss of positions.

With roughly one hour and forty minutes remaining, Milesi took over the No. 35 Alpine and Gounon the No. 36. At that point, they were running seventh and fifteenth place. With rain threatening, they managed to gain positions and stay in the fight. Charles showed strong pace and overtook the No. 83 Ferrari and the No. 15 BMW.

At the end of the six-hour race, they received the checkered flag in P4 and P11. The next challenge for the Alpine Endurance Team will take place from May 7th to 9th, during the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps weekend in Belgium.

Alpine Endurance Team driver quotes after the 6 Hours of Imola:

No. 35 line-up

António Félix da Costa

“I’m happy with our performance in such a demanding race with a lot of neutralisations. Making the right calls on strategy wasn’t easy, but the team did well, and we got the most out of our car this weekend. Ferdinand and Charles drove an amazing race. We can be happy with this fourth-place finish to start our season. Thank you to the whole team for welcoming me. We can now look forward to Spa and the real preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

Charles Milesi

“It was a good race. We lost a bit of time changing all four tyres during the first virtual safety car, but we still managed to optimise our performance. The top three were a cut above the rest today, and this result is probably the best we could have achieved. We can be satisfied with the work done this winter, and we know where we still need to improve. Spa will be an important step in coming back even stronger and continuing our preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

Ferdinand Habsburg

“Congratulations to the team as this result marks our best start to a season since the programme’s inception. Everyone gave it their all, and we can be proud of how we approached the race, our level of performance, and the spirit we showed. I really enjoyed working with my new engineers and new teammates while continuing to get to know the car, especially in traffic, where the feeling is different from last year. There were some great battles, and I want to congratulate António and Charles, who did an incredible job to turn a seventh-place grid position into a fourth-place finish in such a competitive championship.”

No. 36 line-up

Frédéric Makowiecki

“We showed some encouraging potential at times. Our pace was clearly strong in clear air. However, we struggled more in traffic, and that’s a key area we need to work on moving forward. This race has provided us with valuable insight, especially since the next race is just around the corner. We’ll now focus on Spa-Francorchamps, a key race to harness all our potential and the final dry run before the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

Jules Gounon

“It was a really tough race for us, and finishing outside the top ten is naturally disappointing. We ran into a few minor issues that slowed us down, on top of a penalty. That said, we had the pace, and our sister car’s fourth-place finish shows it. We’re going to debrief the race and look what we can improve to come back stronger at Spa.”

Victor Martins

“It was a positive weekend overall. I learned a lot, especially about aspects of endurance racing that were completely new to me. Race traffic is very different from practice traffic, and that was definitely one of the key factors today. Our pace was competitive and I felt like I was doing a good job. The goal is to build on this weekend, keep moving in the right direction, optimise every detail, and avoid mistakes to put it all together. Spa will be another opportunity to score points. I’m also delighted with the performance of the sister car. They did an excellent job, and it shows that the whole team is working in the right direction and providing us with a competitive car.”