Alpine Endurance Team, so close to the podium at São Paulo 2026

Three weeks after the curtain fell on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Alpine Endurance Team returned to Brazilian tarmac for round four of the FIA World Endurance Championship, held from 10 to 12 July at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace.

A weekend apart: the season’s first race outside Europe, an undulating circuit with cambered corners and demanding braking zones, and above all a proving ground for a team that had long struggled there (10^th in 2024, 9^th in 2025).

In front of around 85,000 spectators cheering on the home colours, the two Alpine A424s were about to deliver one of the most frustrating — yet most promising — weekends of their season.

A Friday that set the tone

From the opening free practice sessions, the tone was set. The No. 36 car ran fifth in FP1, with the No. 35 sixth in FP2, before Saturday morning’s session confirmed that the A424 had taken a step forward on a track that had long resisted it. In FP3, Victor Martins simply set the fastest time in the Hypercar class, a 1m24.038s lap, beating the No. 19 Genesis by 0.165s — a top ten covered by barely half a second. Charles Milesi, in the No. 35, rounded out the picture with the seventh-fastest time.

That pace was confirmed in Hyperpole. On his very first appearance in the session this season, Victor Martins matched the A424’s best qualifying result by starting third, just 0.067s off pole position, taken by Will Stevens in the No. 12 Cadillac Jota — the V-Series locking out the entire front row alongside Jack Aitken’s No. 38.

Charles Milesi, a further 0.060s back, took fifth on the No. 35, separated from Martins only by Dries Vanthoor’s No. 15 BMW. Four cars, three manufacturers, covered by less than a tenth of a second: an extraordinary picture, and confirmation that Alpine had positioned itself as the closest challenger to the Cadillacs.

Alpine Endurance Team: a game of chess played to the wire

The start, given late on Sunday afternoon on a track still damp from overnight showers, immediately turned into a trap for the Blues. Ferdinand Habsburg, in the No. 35, lost six places on the opening lap on the wetter side of the circuit; Frédéric Makowiecki, in the No. 36, dropped to fourth. Faced with that deficit, both crews played the short-fuel card from the outset: shorter, more frequent stops to gain track position and run in clean air, even at the cost of range later in the race. It was an offset strategy, mirroring the one that had paid off for BMW at Spa a few weeks earlier.

The gamble found an unexpected ally: a cascade of Cadillac misfortune. Out front, Will Stevens’s pole position held firm through the opening hour — a 4.359-second lead over Magnussen after the first sixty minutes — before the first round of stops turned to chaos for the V-Series.Rs. Stevens lost valuable time when a right-front wheel nut stuck fast in the pit box; on the No. 38, Earl Bamber locked his brakes entering the pit box, forcing his mechanics to scramble and reposition. That double failure opened the door for the offset runners, Alpine chief among them.

At the heart of the race, António Félix da Costa took over the No. 35 and moved into the lead, holding off Raffaele Marciello for much of the third and fourth hours. The balance of power briefly flipped at the start of the fifth hour: Marciello made a move at Turn 4 but ran wide completing the pass, allowing the Portuguese driver to retake the position to roars from the Brazilian crowd. The BMW only reclaimed the lead when the No. 35 pitted and handed over to Charles Milesi — a reprieve that also benefited Alessandro Pier Guidi, who had closed to within two seconds of Marciello in the No. 51 Ferrari during that close battle.

Milesi wasn’t finished yet, either. When Dries Vanthoor took over the BMW, the Frenchman capitalised on his out-lap to reclaim the position. But the No. 35, still committed to its offset strategy, now faced a dilemma: complete the race with one final splash of fuel, or manage consumption so aggressively that it would lose pace. A slow right-rear puncture settled the argument for them, with forty minutes to go until the chequered flag, forcing an unplanned stop and closing the window on victory for good.

The No. 36 dropped out of contention much earlier, and for a different reason. First penalised for a pit-lane infringement involving Victor Martins, it then suffered its own slow puncture, this time at the front-left, which removed it from the top-five fight altogether. Two punctures, two cars, two distinct moments in the race — but one and the same verdict.

The one scenario that could have saved the day never materialised: across the six hours, race control called just a single Full Course Yellow, and no Safety Car at all. Yet that was exactly the kind of interruption Alpine had been banking on to make its opening gamble pay off and complete the race without an extra fuel stop. Without it, the offset strategy could never fully come together, however strong the pace on track.

Vanthoor then settled into a comfortable lead, at a safe distance from James Calado — who had also begun his final stint saving fuel, ruling him out of the fight for victory. Further up the order, Will Stevens salvaged the podium for Cadillac regardless, not without picking up a late penalty for contact with the No. 87 Lexus.

Both Alpines crossed the line on the leader’s lap — 10^th and 11^th, a result that, on position alone, tells you almost nothing about the race they had actually run.

The full Hypercar classification

Eleven cars finished on the winner’s lap — unprecedented on this circuit, which had never previously been won from outside the front row.

A championship that remains wide open

Despite a disappointing weekend in São Paulo (12^th for the No. 7, 17^th for the No. 8), Toyota retains the lead in the manufacturers’ championship at the halfway point of the season, but the cushion is shrinking fast: the Japanese marque now leads BMW by just 5 points, down from a 36-point gap before the Brazilian round. Ferrari, 70 points adrift, is drifting out of title contention.

For Alpine, the No. 35 crew (Félix da Costa/Milesi/Habsburg) arrived in São Paulo fifth in the provisional drivers’ standings on 28 points, with six crews covered by just seven points. The point scored at Interlagos takes them to 29 heading into the Austin restart — the fight for the championship midfield remains fiercely close.

What it means for the A424 programme

This weekend confirms that the 2026-spec A424 has taken a genuine step forward in terms of pace and consistency, even on a circuit where it had historically struggled. The package can now regularly target the top five when everything falls into place — qualifying, strategy and a trouble-free run.

The data gathered on tyre management and offset strategies will prove valuable ahead of the post-summer-break return at Austin (Circuit of The Americas, 4-6 September).

The target set by Philippe Sinault and Nicolas Lapierre remains clear: getting both cars into the top five more consistently across the second half of the season.

What they said

No. 35 crew

António Félix da Costa

“It’s a disappointing result given our potential. We had the pace to fight for the podium. After a difficult start, we opted for a different strategy, a gamble that could have paid off, as we were virtually in the fight for victory.

We were missing a bit of luck to see it through, and the puncture put an end to our last chances. We ultimately have to settle for tenth place. Despite that, there’s a lot of positive to take from this weekend. Our ability to react collectively and make strategic decisions is encouraging. Let’s take those lessons on board as we turn our attention to Austin.”

Charles Milesi

“It was a difficult race. We chose to take a gamble on strategy, but luck wasn’t on our side with that puncture near the end. We also ran into a few issues, particularly with the braking.

At times we clearly have the potential to achieve good results, but we still lack a bit of consistency to fight regularly at the front. We’ll see what the rest of the season has in store, but we’re going to keep working and keep fighting until the end.”

Ferdinand Habsburg

“The positive from this weekend is that we had the pace to fight at the front throughout the race. I think our performance level over the length of the stints was actually a pleasant surprise compared with last year. So it’s very encouraging to see the progress we’ve made. As for me, I’m disappointed with my start.

I made a few too many mistakes, but I managed to get the full potential out of the car once the track was clear. The team did an excellent job supporting me, and that showed in our performance. It’s a shame our last hopes disappeared with the puncture, as we would have loved to see our strategy through to the end. Still, we come away with points after a very encouraging weekend.”

No. 36 crew

Frédéric Makowiecki

“It was a tricky race overall. I think we had a good car, and the start of the race went well. I made a small mistake at my first stop, positioning slightly too far to the left, which disrupted things afterwards.

The choice to preserve our tyres also put us in a difficult position later on. Despite that, I think we showed a good level of performance, but the result doesn’t depend on that alone, since execution is crucial.”

Jules Gounon

“It was a difficult race on our side, and unfortunately we finish just outside the top ten. We showed solid pace and had what it took to achieve a good result, but several issues held us back, including a problem with the car and then a puncture.

That’s inevitably disappointing given our potential this weekend, but that’s motor racing sometimes. We’re now going to analyse everything to come back stronger and bounce back at Austin.”

Victor Martins

“It was a very difficult race, but we had an encouraging start. We had good pace to stay in touch with the leaders, and we were clearly in the fight for the podium.

The puncture cost us a lot of time and we had to change our strategy. We also had a problem with the car, which made the rest of the race particularly complicated. In those conditions, I think we did the maximum with what we had available.”

Management

Nicolas Lapierre, Sporting Director, Alpine Endurance Team

“Today’s result is disappointing. We didn’t manage to realise our potential, even though the pace shown by the A424 was strong enough to aim for a much better finishing position. The two punctures, one on each car, also compromised our strategies and stopped us playing our cards through to the end.

It’s a shame, because we had the means to do better. We need to take the positives from this weekend, particularly the car’s overall performance and the progress made on a track where we struggled last year, and keep moving forward to come back stronger at Austin.”

Philippe Sinault, Team Principal, Alpine Endurance Team

“It wasn’t an easy day, even though we showed solid pace from the outset. On the No. 36, we were put in difficulty by tyre degradation as early as the second stint. We decided to adapt our strategy by bringing forward a stop to recover an excellent level of performance. That was the case, with some very competitive lap times as a result. Sadly, Victor’s puncture put an end to our hopes of a good result.

On the No. 35 side, the start of the race was trickier, mainly because of traffic. We then took the risk of shifting our strategy. That allowed us to get back into the fight at the front, but a puncture in the final hour also compromised the crew’s ambitions, even before any potential splash-and-dash. We inevitably leave Brazil frustrated, because the A424’s potential was clearly there and the final positions don’t reflect our true level.

We now need to analyse every element so we can keep progressing in every area. We showed that we were in the fight, and we’ll keep working to come back stronger at Austin.”

Source: Alpine Endurance Team and full official classification and updated standings: fiawec.com