Alpine Elf Endurance Team are ready to get stuck in to the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship after completing 1,300 kilometres of testing at the Prologue event.
The team is back on the FIA WEC grid with their A480, joining the Hypercar class again as they do battle with Toyota and Scuderia Glickenhaus with Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Matthieu Vaxiviere behind the wheel.
The team showed strong pace during the opening session at Sebring International Raceway, finishing in second place with a time of 1:50.263, set by Vaxiviere, 0.525 seconds behind the leading time set by the #708 Glickenhaus car.
During the second session Vaxiviere topped the timesheets with a time of 1:50.512, 0.528 seconds faster that the United Autosports team, and 0.333 faster than his teammate Negrão in the same car.
Speaking before the race weekend, Philippe Sinault, Alpine Elf Endurance Team Principal said, “After the Prologue which allowed us to rediscover Sebring, we must continue our work to tackle this first race in the best conditions. It is probably one of the hardest races of the year.
“The 1000 Miles of Sebring are never easy. You have to be reliable, stay focused all the time, avoid problems, deal with the traffic, and not forget the lack of escape roads or the darkness.
“It’s a real act of bravery, but we have experienced team and drivers who have already demonstrated their ability in these long races. In any case, we are more than ever ready to take up the challenge!”
