Luca de Meo, boss of the Renault group, has big ambitions for Alpine. During the presentation of the F1 2022 single-seater, he made no secret of his intention to engage the brand at the highest level of motorsport. An arrival in the WRC or the Dakar is envisaged.
During the presentation of the Alpine F1 2022 in Paris, Luca de Meo revealed his ambitions in competition for the brand at A Fléché. By 2026, the managing director of the Renault group hopes to engage Alpine in several sporting disciplines to offer him visibility. give international credibility and project it into the future. »
An Alpine soon in the WRC…
” I have always defended emotion in the automobile, because that is lost. I don’t want electric cars to be just televisions on wheels. I want to challenge that prejudice and we can do that with Alpine. Electric vehicles can be exciting. assured Luca de Meo to our microphone. He wants to make Alpine ” a kind of catalyst for motorsport in France, because it‘East a technical and high-tech sector that creates added value and attracts many very specialized engineers. »
During the interview granted to a handful of journalists, the boss of the Renault Group said he wanted to engage Alpine in rallying. ” We are interested in joining the WRC world championship, but I would like to do it in electric ! slips the Italian leader. For now, the WRC has just converted to hybridization and has not yet mentioned its plans for the future. Anyway, Alpine would have the perfect product to return to the highest level of the discipline. Not with the A110 or its future descendant, but with the Alpine A5, a cousin of the future Renault R5 E-Tech Electrique, whose marketing should take place in 2024. It would thus take up the torch of the Renault 5 Alpine and R5 Turbo who distinguished themselves in rallying in the 70s and 80s.
TO READ. Alpine A5 (2024). The little secrets of the electric bombinette
…and in the Dakar?
” I also want to do the Dakar “, he confided. Audi’s results on the 2022 edition of the rally-raid with its 100% electric RS Q e-tron buggy have apparently convinced the leader of the interest in investing in this internationally renowned race. With a derivative stripped of its future SUV, also 100% electric? It is less certain!
If Alpine has already found itself at the start of the rally-raid, theA310 engaged in 1981 was not officially and the adventure unfortunately ended in abandonment. ” Trying to go into the different major categories, attracting investors but also customers for amateur competition: all of this is important because there is business ! concludes Luca de Meo.
Let’s also not forget that in 2024, Alpine will enter endurance racing with a new Hypercar. The prototype will be based on an Oreca chassis, will be powered by an Alpine engine developed in Viry-Châtillon (91). As for the bodywork, it will be developed with the help of engineers from Enstone in England.
TO READ. An Alpine Hypercar in the 2024 World Endurance Championship
Alpine and competition, a long history
The history of Alpine in competition does not date from yesterday. It all started in 1962 with the one we nicknamed “the Berlinette”. This small sports car (3.85 m long) offers a weight/power ratio ahead of its time. It won many rally events including the 1971 and 1973 championships. At the end of the 1970s, the Renault 5 Alpine Group 2 distinguished itself in the hands of Jean Ragnotti in the French championship, just before the arrival of the R5 Turbo. .
Alpine then entered endurance racing with Renault. The famous A442 and its yellow and white “Elf” livery, developed in 1975, won the 1978 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Then the motorsport epic gradually came to an end with the bankruptcy of Alpine.
Today, the Dieppe manufacturer’s program revolves around the A110 Rally (body kit + suspensions, chassis, revised engine). It allows you to enter the French rounds of the rally and is even homologated for the FIA R-GT championship. In terms of prototypes, in 2022 the manufacturer is maintaining its partnership born in 2013 with Signatech. The A480 will participate for the second consecutive season in the new “Hypercars” category, replacing LMP1.
