Makowiecki: No Regrets As Alpine Misses First Win at Spa

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Frederic Makowiecki has said he has no regrets regarding Alpine’s failure to score a maiden FIA World Endurance Championship victory in Saturday’s Spa round, as he and his teammates finished third behind the two factory Ferraris.

For a second race in a row, Makowiecki and his co-drivers aboard the No. 36 Alpine A424, Mick Schumacher and Jules Gounon, took the bottom step of the podium.

Schumacher was at the wheel for the final stages of what became a fuel mileage race owing to the timing of the final safety car period, but fell less than one second shy of the second-placed Ferrari 499P, and within five seconds of the winning Ferrari.

Alpine led at the halfway stage, helped by a strong early phase of the race for Makowiecki, but the French driver said he was “proud” of the job the team against the backdrop of what he considered to be Ferrari’s advantage on pure pace.

“On one side you are a little bit disappointed, but also really proud of the team,” Makowiecki told reporters post-race.

“Definitely we are understanding the car better and better, and we are operating better. We have a very strong challenger in front us, but we need to continue in this direction.

“In the end, we still finished on the podium, for the second race in a row, it shows we are working in the right direction.”

The timing of the final pit stops for the Alpine was dictated by a slow puncture for Schumacher that forced the German to make his penultimate stop earlier than planned, which also meant that the No. 36 car was one of the first cars to clear its final splash.

But Makowiecki does not believe that this ultimately cost Alpine a first WEC win.

“Probably without the puncture, we would have finished P2, but a win would have been tight,” said Makowiecki.

“When we started pushing a little bit more, Ferrari was capable of showing that they had something else [in terms of pace]. That’s why I say it would have been tight.

“We were very close to car No. 51. I think we were better in terms of consistency, but in terms of pure pace, they were quite strong.”

Makowiecki’s time at the wheel of the No. 36 car was highlighted by a series of overtaking moves that propelled the lead Alpine from sixth to second, including a memorable pass on James Calado’s Ferrari on the run down to Eau Rouge.

The ex-Porsche driver explained that Alpine had prioritized race preparations over one-lap pace, knowing that the nature of the Spa circuit would allow the marque to make up positions on-track instead of relying purely on strategy.

“We knew the limiting factor was the [tire] drop, which was why I tried to be careful in the first two or three laps, and this paid off,” recalled Makowiecki.

“I could really push lap after lap, and the car was very nice to drive.

“From FP1 we worked to have a good race car; maybe we missed a bit in qualifying, but we were able to do a very strong race.

“In the opposite way from Imola, we knew that here, if you are consistent, you can overtake, especially in the second half of the stint.”

Alpine’s No. 35 car, shared by Charles Milesi, Paul-Loup Chatin and Ferdinand Habsburg, ran fourth in the closing stages until a late splash of fuel dropped it to eighth.