motorsport
Rally
Rallying success can be found at the very roots of Alpine, with the uniquely crafted Rédélé Specials of the 1950s proving our founder’s expertise across the hills of Europe. It laid down a baton which our beloved A110 ran with in the 1970s.
1971 | CHAMPIONSHIP FOR MANUFACTURERS
Alpine claimed the second International Championship for Manufacturers in 1971 when the A110 1600 of Swedish driver Ove Andersson won four of eight rounds, including the iconic Monte Carlo Rally.
1971 | MONTE CARLO RALLY
A mighty 248 cars began the Monte Carlo rally but just 22 finished, wildly changeable weather conditions bringing all four seasons to the stages to leave the tyre strategy of many competitors in tatters. Alpine battled through the conditions to claim the top two steps of the podium, with Swede Andersson and Frenchman Jean-Luc Thérier respectively claiming first and second place in their A110s.
1973 | 1ST WRC - ALPINE 1ST
We followed up our 71’ success by winning the freshly launched World Rally Championship (WRC) in its very first year, in 1973. Here the A110 1800 claimed victory at six of 13 rallies, including two podium lockouts.
Our modern-day A110 San Remo 73 edition celebrates the crucial victory that sealed our title success.
1973 | MONTE CARLO RALLY
The famous stages of Monte Carlo hosted the first ever round of WRC, a championship that still excites crowds today. Weather again posed a stern challenge and only a fifth of the event’s competitors finished.
Alpine again triumphed over such adversity, too, with five A110s occupying the top six positions including all three steps of the podium, Frenchman Jean-Claude Andruet claiming the inaugural world championship trophy.
1975 | TOUR DE CORSE RALLY
The dominance of our A110 rally car couldn’t last forever and the arrival of the Lancia Stratos provided an insurmountable challenge for all who shared the stages with it. But our story wasn’t over, with the heroic Jean-Pierre Nicolas and his number seven car pushing hard to finish just 32 seconds behind the leading Lancia on the ‘Isle of Beauty’.
Our A110 Tour de Corse 75 celebrated both a cherished memory and the iconic yellow livery of Nicolas’ car.
Endurance
Some of our most heroic stories may have been written on mud, gravel and snow, but Jean Rédélé’s first love was the grit of round-the-clock racing, most notably at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Alpine competed successfully in endurance racing across the 1960s and ‘70s before returning in 2013, victories and world titles soon following. Over 60 years of history has entered a new hybrid chapter with our A424 Hypercar, which will fight for overall Le Mans victory from 2024.
PERFORMANCE INDEX WINS
While Ford vs Ferrari dominated Le Mans in the 1960s, there were exciting battles across the grid as the race organisers celebrated design ingenuity with their new ‘Index of Thermal Efficiency’ rules, which allowed the slim bodies and small engines of Alpine to shine. The beautiful teardrop M64 scored a prize in 1964 while in 1966 a trio of A210s claimed the entire podium of this ‘race within a race’, gifting Alpine the nickname of ‘world’s fastest litre of petrol’.
1974 EUROPEAN SPORTS CAR CHAMPIONSHIP
Those index victories lit an ember in Rédélé’s heart to win Le Mans outright, and investment from Renault laid the path for greater endurance facing glory. The Alpine A441 claimed top prize in the European Sports Car Championship with seven wins and numerous ‘fastest lap’ accolades. Its 2-litre Gordini V6 engine played into the hands of the Group 5 regulations which bred a number of truly iconic racecars.
1978 24 HOURS OF LE MANS WIN
Rédélé’s dream came true four years later when the Alpine A442B won the world’s most legendary endurance race outright, beating two Porsche 936s abiding by the same Group 6 rulebook. Didier Pironi and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud were on driving duties as we finished an astonishing five laps ahead of our tenacious German rivals. Our long love affair with Le Mans is celebrated by the A110 R Le Mans edition, and will continue when we enter the World Endurance Championship’s top tier from 2024 with our thrilling new Alpine A424 Hypercar.
Formula 1®
Alpine enters F1®
We picked up the baton in 2021 from our Renault relations with the launch of our F1® team, one which can trace its roots back over 40 years with world championship success along the way. It also pairs the engineering genius of our Viry-Châtillon base with the enviable expertise of Team Enstone, famously set in the heart of the UK’s legendary motorsport valley.
