Метка: Jules Gounon

Gounon set for further WEC race outing with Alpine

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Jules Gounon is set to graduate from his role as Alpine’s official World Endurance Championship reserve to take a race seat at Bahrain in November for a second consecutive weekend.

The move is part of the same plan, put in place at the beginning of the season, that resulted in Gounon replacing Paul-Loup Chatin in the #35 Alpine A424 LMDh for last weekend’s Fuji round, Motorsport.com has learned.

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This time it calls for the Mercedes-AMG factory driver to take the place of Charles Milesi, Alpine’s star performer at this month’s Austin and Fuji WEC races, in the #35 Hypercar class entry run by the factory Signatech team. 

Alpine has so far yet to confirm Gounon’s role for the Bahrain 8 Hours on 2 November. 

The 29-year-old Frenchman, who subbed for the injured Ferdinand Habsburg in #35 at the Imola and Spa WEC rounds in April and May respectively, appears to be in contention for a race seat at the Signatech Alpine squad next year. 

Speculation to that effect was fuelled by his promotion to the race line-up at Fuji, which was devised to give him “the opportunity to continue his Hypercar learning process”, according to Alpine.

The Renault brand’s motorsport boss, Bruno Famin, wouldn’t confirm that changes in the Alpine WEC line-up are under consideration for 2025. He repeated the phrase “one thing after the other” when asked. 

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Jules Gounon

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Jules Gounon

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Gounon, whose father Jean-Marc finished second at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1997 driving a GTC McLaren F1 GTR, has never made any secret of his aspirations to compete at the highest level of sportscar racing. 

He described going for victory in the WEC and at the Le Mans 24 Hours as “my biggest goal and my biggest dream”.

But he said he preferred to talk about Fuji when questioned in Japan last weekend about a possible full-time future with Alpine. 

He confirmed that he remained under contract to Mercedes as part of its GT3 roster for one more year in 2025, but insisted that this would not necessarily prevent him for racing for Alpine in the full WEC alongside his commitments with the German manufacturer. 

“It could be a possibility,” he said. 

Gounon revealed on the announcement of his deal with Alpine in February that he had travelled to the home of Mercedes-AMG head of customer racing Stefan Wendl “to beg him to let me do this adventure with Alpine”. 

He also revealed at that time that there had been discussions about a full-time ride in the WEC with Alpine for 2024.

“Mercedes has been fantastic for me over the past three years and it wouldn’t have been fair to go against them,” he said.   

There is still uncertainty over Mick Schumacher’s place at Alpine for next year. 

#36 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Mick Schumacher

#36 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Mick Schumacher

Photo by: Andreas Beil

The former Haas Formula 1 driver, who has dovetailed his role as Mercedes’s test and reserve with racing for Alpine in the WEC this year, has repeatedly refused to commit to remaining in the series in 2025. 

He is still insisting that a return to a full-time race seat in F1 remains his priority even though there are now only two berths vacant. 

“I am still looking at F1,” he said. “My plans for next year are pretty open: nothing is confirmed, nothing is done.”

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Gounon gets Alpine drive for Fuji WEC round

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Alpine reserve driver Jules Gounon will replace Paul-Loup Chatin at the Signatech-run team for the Fuji 6 Hours round of the World Endurance Championship.

Alpine made the announcement on Friday ahead of next week’s race, explaining that plans for Gounon’s outing had been made prior to the season with the team’s sole motive being giving the 29-year-old Frenchman more experience.

“Jules Gounon will exceptionally take the wheel from Paul-Loup Chatin to join Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg during the #6HFuji,” the team said in a statement on social media.

“Agreed upon even before the season started, this switch gives the team’s reserve driver the opportunity to continue his Hypercar training.

“Paul-Loup Chatin will naturally rejoin the No. 35 crew for the 8 Hours of Bahrain.”

Having raced in GTs since 2016, Gounon has less sportscar experience, although his only full-time season in IMSA was successful.

Taking place last year in the GTD Pro class at the wheel of a WeatherTech Racing-run Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, the campaign yielded the championship’s runner-up spot for Gounon and his team-mate Dani Juncadella.

Furthermore, Gounon has already taken part in two WEC races with Alpine this year, having stood in for an injured Ferdinand Habsburg at Imola and Spa-Francorchamps after the Austrian fractured two vertebrae in a testing crash.

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Alpine achieved its best result of the 2024 WEC season so far last weekend at the Circuit of The Americas, courtesy of the #35 car shared by Chatin, Milesi and Habsburg finishing fifth.

Meanwhile, the sister A424 was ninth under the chequered flag, with Nicolas Lapierre, Mick Schumacher and Matthieu Vaxiviere recording just their second points score of the year.

“It’s been a surprisingly positive weekend, given all the other teams tested in Austin,” Habsburg said following the Austin race. “Despite our lack of experience, there was good communication between the drivers and engineers, which led us to make some sound decisions on strategy and set-up.”

“There are a lot of positives to take from fifth place in such a tough field, but there’s still a lot of work to do if we want to win,” Chatin added. “Let’s savour the moment without forgetting about our future goals.”



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Gounon to again replace injured Habsburg at Alpine in Spa WEC round

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The French manufacturer’s reserve driver will race the #35 Alpine A424 LMDh for a second race in a row as Habsburg continues to recover from the back injuries sustained in testing at the end of March. 

Habsburg was initially listed in the car alongside Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup Chatin on the publication late last month of the entry list for the Belgian round of the WEC, but his name has now been replaced by Gounon’s. 

It is understood that the decision has been made for Habsburg to fully focus on his recovery and then rebuilding fitness in time for the Le Mans 24 Hours WEC round on 15/16 June. 

Habsburg fractured two lumbar vertebrae during an Alpine pre-Le Mans endurance test at MotorLand Aragon and was subsequently ruled out of last month’s Imola WEC round. 

Alpine team boss Philippe Sinault hinted at the Italian race that Habsburg could be fit in time for the Spa 6 Hours on 11 May, saying that he was “expecting good news”. 

The accident in which Habsburg sustained the injuries resulted from a technical failure, which Alpine has yet to explain, at Turn 7 of the Spanish facility. 

Proton Competition Porsche driver Harry Tincknell will miss Spa as expected, despite appearing on the original version of the entry list. 

It has been decided by his employer, Multimatic Motorsports, that his GT Daytona Pro class campaign with Ford in the IMSA SportsCar Championship will take precedence over the WEC programme with Proton.

That means the Briton will be at Laguna Seca this weekend racing a Multimatic-run Ford Mustang GT3 alongside full-season team-mate Mike Rockenfeller. 

Tincknell’s absence means that Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer will race the car as a duo. 

The #99 entry will be one of five cars in the 19-strong Hypercar class entry with only two drivers for the six-hour race. 

Confirmation that Peugeot would not be replacing Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne, who will be on duty with DS Penske in the Berlin Formula E Championship event, for Spa came with the publication of the entry list last month.



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Gounon replaces Habsburg for Alpine Hypercar debut at Imola’s WEC round

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The two-time GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup title winner with Mercedes takes Habsburg’s seat in the French manufacturer’s #35 A424 LMDh alongside Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup in his role as official reserve for the Signatech-run Alpine Endurance Team.

Habsburg has been ruled out for at least the second round of the 2024 WEC after sustaining two fractured vertebrae during an endurance test with Alpine at the Aragon ciruit at the end of March.

Alpine team principal Philippe Sinault said: “It’s never easy to make your debut in such a context, but Jules was identified, selected and signed to fill this role, even though we never imagined it would happen so early like this.

“He’s fundamentally ready but still has much to learn, even if he has already demonstrated his mastery of several aspects, given his track record in GT [racing].

“We honed his preparation during our latest tests with his six team-mates and then in the simulator to prepare him for all our processes.”

Sinault added that Habsburg would “be in our minds” and that his absence is “a hard blow”.

Alpine has given no indication of whether Habsburg will be fit in time for round three of the WEC at Spa on 11 May.

The two fractured lumbar vertebrae were sustained when Habsburg crashed at Turn 7 at MotorLand Aragon for reasons that have so far not been disclosed by Alpine.

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The injuries were only diagnosed after Habsburg had returned to his native Austria, despite undergoing checks in the local hospital in Alcaniz.

Gounon, 29, has been a factory sportscar driver since he began a three-year stint at Bentley prior to joining the Mercedes-AMG GT3 roster in 2021.

But Imola will be his first race at the wheel of a prototype.

Alpine said in its pre-race statement that its mission over the weekend of the Imola 6 Hours will be “to gather as much data as possible”.

“Our goal at Imola is to continue our learning process to be increasingly ready and gain momentum for the forthcoming races,” explained Sinault.

“We’ll discover a circuit quite different from what we’ve experienced since the first runs of the A424.”

Habsburg, Milesi and Chatin took points for Alpine on the debut of the A424 developed in conjunction with French constructor ORECA in the Qatar 1812Km at the beginning of March.



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