Alpine Faces Performance Challenges in Le Mans Qualifying

According to Motorsport.com, Alpine team faces an unexpected situation in Le Mans qualifying — their promising performance from the test day has seen a significant decline.

Frédéric Makowiecki, teammate to Mick Schumacher and Jules Gounon in car #36, expressed the team’s confusion about this performance drop.

“We’re struggling to understand if this relates to temperature or track evolution — the situation isn’t meeting our expectations,” he explained.

“We weren’t satisfied with certain car behaviors, especially over bumps. Our attempted fixes have actually yielded different results than expected, despite these solutions working previously in different contexts,” added Makowiecki.

Philippe Sinault, Alpine’s endurance team leader, emphasized the progress made over the past year:

• Basic car setup
• Tire knowledge
• Software management
• Sensor management
• Traction control

While both A424 cars qualified for Hyperpole 1 session, the team still needs to work hard on race strategy. Sinault emphasized that success lies in minimizing mistakes — even small penalties can dramatically alter the race’s course.