24h Le Mans
Winner in the LM P2 class at the last two editons of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Nicolas Lapierre is set to continue his successful collaboration in 2017 with the Signatech Alpine team with whom he won the FIA Endurance LM P2 Drivers and Teams Trophy this year.
The 2016 LM P2 prototypes will still be eligible to compete in the 2017 World Endurance Championship (WEC) and 24 Hours of Le Mans, so Alpine will keep its A460 but make the necessary modifications to comply with the new technical regulations going into effect January 1, 2017. The French marque, part of Renault, will be looking to defend its titles!
Known for his optimization skills, Nicolas Lapierre, former official Toyota driver, will provide precious support to Alpine and Philippe Sinault's team as they develop a new car. The French native, fast on the track and at ease in traffic, is very generous sharing his experience with new teammates Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi. It's a collaboration which allowed the trio to win in the LM P2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in June, as well as at three of the eight rounds on the World Endurance Championship (WEC) calendar.
2015 was also a successful year for Nicolas Lapierre who won with the Oreca 05 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the car's first participation, which allowed the KCMG team to become the first Chinese team to win a class victory at Le Mans. At the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the French driver had to settle for fifth place overall in the Drivers standings while his teammates were vice-champions.
Nicolas Lapierre will join forces with at least one new teammate in 2017 since the composition of LM P2 driver line-ups is regulated: a three-driver line-up must include at least one Silver or Bronze driver, and Gustavo Menezes is now categorized as Gold given the level of his results: "Obviously, I'm very happy to pursue my career with Signatech-Alpine. Prior to the 2016 season, I had already had a number of good memories with Philippe Sinault and his team. Twelve months later, and we have added another chapter to our shared history! We're going to keep working relentlessly to get to grips with the challenges of the 2017 LM P2s as well as we can. I am also proud to keep competing on behalf of Alpine. 2017 looks set to be an intense year and I can't wait to be involved in the events of the next few months."
Quotation from Alpine press release.
