Philippe Sinault: "We must remain vigilant!"

After a success at the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the first one for Philippe Sinault's team in Hypercar, Alpine Endurance Team arrives at the 6H of Spa with the same goal to do well despite a new Balance of Performance. Matthieu Vaxiviere, Nicolas Lapierre and André Negrao will have to deal with less power in the Belgian Ardennes. For the Richard Mille Racing Team, Sebring gave Lilou Wadoux, Sébastien Ogier and Charles Milesi the opportunity to discover themselves. Spa should enable them to do better than a 12th place in LMP2. Before the Belgian round of the WEC, Philippe Sinault spoke to Endurance-Info.

Starting the season with a win is obviously positive for the rest of the championship...

"We had identified that Sebring was a good track for our car. Its atypical layout lends itself well to the Alpine and it is the most favourable circuit of the season for us. The gap to the LMP2 cars was quite good but the Toyota had a handicap. Spa is going to be different because the circuit is completely différent than Sebring.

The Alpine lost some horsepower for the 6 Hours of Spa. Is that a big handicap?

It seemed inevitable that the BOP would be adjusted for Spa. After Sebring, we shared our analysis with the legislator."

You need one thing. To be good at Le Mans...

"Confidence is high but we must remain vigilant. We believe in the decisions of the legislator so that everyone has a chance. As far as Alpine is concerned, the progress has been global, notably in energy management where everything has been refined. We are managing things better. At Sebring, the set-up was good since the beginning of the meeting.

Do you believe in victory at Le Mans?

"We know the rules of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We have a great chance but we will also go to Le Mans in 2024 to win."

Has your new trio in the Richard Mille Racing Team given satisfaction?

"We have two rookies, so we still need to work. The LMP2 class is very tight and very competitive. We had to get Lilou and Seb to drive a bit more, as they have less experience of LMP2 than Charles. For Seb, tyre management is not easy. He will be able to be fast, there is no doubt about that. Seb has the desire and the requirement for that. The ingredients are there, now it's a question of the recipe working. Seb has tasted so much victory in his career. Lilou approaches things with serenity, she runs without question. As for Charles, he has a new role and we can't ask him to do everything, even if he has the most experience of the trio. Sebring was a good opportunity to get everyone settled in."