Nicolas Lapierre is the most experienced of the three Alpine drivers. He gives us his thoughts on Hypercar rivalities and what it will take to be in with a chance of winning the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“It’s not easy to have an exact opinion for the moment, after Portimão, Spa and Monza. We’ve seen that Toyota has a comfortable place up front, but with a few teething problems, and the Glickenhaus is very powerful but has reliability issues. And we’re in the middle, believing that we’re better in that respect. But we have a lot of ballast. The car is very, very heavy. We’ve never been in this position before at Le Mans, with so much weight, so it’s tricky to estimate the hierarchy and chances of success of each team.”

Test Day confirmed the work the Alpine Elf Matmut team have been doing on reliability. “We amassed a lot of data yesterday (Sunday) over 1,200 km. We’ve never driven so far on Test Day and now we’re working flat out to analyse the data and check all the parts for any little defects, to see how they’ve fared. We particularly want to check the brakes, obviously. Then the suspension, which really takes the toll of all the extra weight. The engine and the gearbox have already covered the same type of distance without a hitch though.”

Nicolas Lapierre has been observing his rivals closely. “The brakes on the Glickenhaus also suffered heavily at Monza. Seeing as there’s not a lot of time between the two races, we expect them to have issues with the brakes here too. We know that Toyota has got two very good cars, two excellent line-ups, they’ve done a lot of simulation, they’ve got a huge amount of clout, they know they race well, and they’ve got a lot of top-class experience, so they are obviously the favourites."

Nicolas Lapierre will share the wheel of the #36 Alpine with fellow Frenchman, Matthieu Vaxivière, and Brazilian driver André Negrão. As captain of the trio, Lapierre’s strategy for victory will focus on piling on the pressure, with one concern – stint length. “The idea is to keep up with Toyota. In terms of stint length, we might be a lap behind. We know that the ACO has worked hard to make sure that the range is fair and that we can all - the three Hypercar teams - do the same number of laps with a full tank, with no more than a lap’s difference. The best race scenario would be if everyone refuelled on the same lap, and we’re counting on the technical regulations for that. But unfortunately, we won’t know that until the end of the first stint in the race.”

So there’s nothing else for it. “It’s up to us to stay on Toyota’s tail. Our aim is to keep them within reach. We know there’ll be a bit of competition between the two cars. We’re at a statistical disadvantage, having only one car, but we have the advantage of having our whole, tight-knit team behind us. [...] If they don’t have a reason to pull their finger out, this race will be easy for them. If they’re not under pressure, they’ll take fewer risks in the traffic, and fewer kerbs. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, if there’s no pressure, everything is so much easier.  We can’t just let them get on with it, we’ve got to make our presence felt and rattle them."