Signatech, currently competing as the Alpine Endurance Team, is a French auto racing team and racing car constructor that competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Signatech has been a long-term partner for Automobiles Alpine since 2013, and has been responsible for running their Le Mans Prototype race cars in the WEC, most notably in the LMP2 class and more recently stepping up to the Le Mans Hypercar class with Alpine's A424 sports prototype.[1] Alpine purchased a stake in Signatech in 2024.[2]

France Signatech Alpine
Founded1990
BaseBourges, France
Team principal(s)Philippe Sinault
Current seriesFIA World Endurance Championship
Former seriesFormula 3 Euro Series
French Formula Three
FR 2.0 France
European Le Mans Series
European Formula 3
Current driversFrance Paul-Loup Chatin
France Jules Gounon
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Charles Milesi
Germany Mick Schumacher
France Matthieu Vaxivière
Teams'
Championships
Formula 3 Euro Series:
2010
European Le Mans Series:
2013, 2014
FIA World Endurance Championship:
2016, 2018–19
Drivers'
Championships
Formula 3 Euro Series:
2010: Edoardo Mortara
European Le Mans Series:
2013: Pierre Ragues, Nelson Panciatici
2014: Paul-Loup Chatin, Nelson Panciatici, Oliver Webb

Racing history

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The team won the FIA European Formula Three Cup in 1999 with Benoît Tréluyer. It won the French Formula Three Championship in 2000 with Jonathan Cochet as driver, who also won the European Cup and Masters of Formula 3 that year, and won the Korea Super Prix for the team in 2001. In 2002, Renaud Derlot won the European F3 Cup for the team.

In 2003, Signature won the team championship in the first Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, with Tristan Gommendy and Kosuke Matsuura as drivers. They moved from the defunct French F3 series to its replacement, the Formula 3 Euro Series, and Nicolas Lapierre and Fabio Carbone completed a 1–2 finish for the team at the prestigious Macau Grand Prix. Edoardo Mortara and Jean-Karl Vernay repeated this feat in 2009. The team began competing in the 2009 European Le Mans Series in the LMP1 category.

The 2010 season was an outstanding one for Signature in the F3 Euroseries with Edoardo Mortara and Marco Wittmann finishing first and second in the series, winning eight races between them, and also taking the team championship.

Signatech provided the chassis for the Formula Future Fiat, a junior formula racing series in Brazil held in 2010 and 2011.

 
Signatech Nissan at the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans

In 2011, in cooperation with the Nissan GT Academy, Signatech finished second in LMP2 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In 2012, Signature decided to pull out of the Formula 3 Euro Series, to concentrate on its involvement in sport car races.

The team finished tenth overall at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans using a Nissan-powered Oreca 03.

In 2013, Alpine partnered with Signatech to run an LMP2 car in the European Le Mans Series with French drivers Pierre Ragues and Nelson Panciatici. Signatech won the LMP2 Team's and Driver's championships.

In 2014, Signatech delivered chassis for the Formula 4 Sudamericana.

In 2015, Signatech, continuing its partnership with Alpine, returned to the FIA World Endurance Championship, winning the championship LMP2 category in 2016 and 2018–19.

 
The Alpine A110 GT4 is built by Signatech for Alpine

In 2020, Signatech returned to the European Le Mans Series under the name of Richard Mille Racing Team. The team previously planned to run an all-female lineup of Tatiana Calderón, Katherine Legge and Sophia Flörsch, however, due to Legge's injury, she was then replaced by André Negrão for the first two rounds. Beitske Visser would then take over Legge's place for the rest of the season.[3] The team would then join the LMP2 class of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship, with an all-female lineup of Tatiana Calderón, Beitske Visser and Sophia Flörsch.[4]

 
Signatech's Alpine A480 at the 2022 24 Hours of Le Mans

In 2021, the team partnered again with Alpine, this time fielding a "grandfathered" Rebellion R13 in the Le Mans Hypercar class for the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship season, which finished third overall at the 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans.[5] The team continued with this lineup in 2022.[6] For 2023, Signatech returned to the LMP2 category with two Oreca 07s; they will return to the top class of the World Endurance Championship in 2024 with two Alpine A424s.[7]

Racing record

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24 Hours of Le Mans results

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Year Entrant No. Car Drivers Class Laps Pos. Class
Pos.
2009   Signature Plus 12 Courage-Oreca LC70E-Judd   Didier André
  Franck Mailleux
  Pierre Ragues
LMP1 344 11th 10th
2010   Signature Plus 008 Lola-Aston Martin B09/60   Vanina Ickx
  Franck Mailleux
  Pierre Ragues
LMP1 302 DNF DNF
2011   Signatech Nissan 26 Oreca 03-Nissan   Soheil Ayari
  Franck Mailleux
  Lucas Ordóñez
LMP2 320 9th 2nd
2012   Signatech Nissan 23 Oreca 03-Nissan   Olivier Lombard
  Franck Mailleux
  Jordan Tresson
LMP2 340 16th 9th
26   Nelson Panciatici
  Pierre Ragues
  Roman Rusinov
351 10th 4th
2013   Signatech Alpine 36 Alpine A450-Nissan   Tristan Gommendy
  Nelson Panciatici
  Pierre Ragues
LMP2 317 14th 8th
2014   Signatech Alpine 36 Alpine A450b-Nissan   Paul-Loup Chatin
  Nelson Panciatici
  Oliver Webb
LMP2 355 7th 3rd
2015   Signatech Alpine 36 Alpine A450b-Nissan   Vincent Capillaire
  Paul-Loup Chatin
  Nelson Panciatici
LMP2 110 DNF DNF
2016   Signatech Alpine 36 Alpine A460-Nissan   Nicolas Lapierre
  Gustavo Menezes
  Stéphane Richelmi
LMP2 357 5th 1st
2017   Signatech Alpine Matmut 35 Alpine A470-Gibson   André Negrão
  Nelson Panciatici
  Pierre Ragues
LMP2 362 4th 3rd
36   Romain Dumas
  Gustavo Menezes
  Matt Rao
351 10th 8th
2018   Signatech Alpine Matmut 36 Alpine A470-Gibson   Nicolas Lapierre
  André Negrão
  Pierre Thiriet
LMP2 367 5th 1st
2019   Signatech Alpine Matmut 36 Alpine A470-Gibson   Nicolas Lapierre
  André Negrão
  Pierre Thiriet
LMP2 368 6th 1st
2020   Signatech Alpine Elf 36 Alpine A470-Gibson   Thomas Laurent
  André Negrão
  Pierre Ragues
LMP2 367 8th 4th
  Richard Mille Racing Team 50 Oreca 07-Gibson   Tatiana Calderón
  Sophia Flörsch
  Beitske Visser
364 13th 9th
2021   Alpine Elf Matmut 36 Alpine A480-Gibson   Nicolas Lapierre
  André Negrão
  Matthieu Vaxivière
Hypercar 367 3rd 3rd
  Richard Mille Racing Team 1 Oreca 07-Gibson   Tatiana Calderón
  Sophia Flörsch
  Beitske Visser
LMP2 74 DNF DNF
2022   Alpine Elf Team 36 Alpine A480-Gibson   Nicolas Lapierre
  André Negrão
  Matthieu Vaxivière
Hypercar 362 23rd 5th
  Richard Mille Racing Team 1 Oreca 07-Gibson   Charles Milesi
  Sébastien Ogier
  Lilou Wadoux
LMP2 366 13th 9th
2023   Alpine Elf Team 35 Oreca 07-Gibson   Olli Caldwell
  André Negrão
  Memo Rojas
LMP2 322 19th 9th
36   Julien Canal
  Charles Milesi
  Matthieu Vaxivière
327 12th 4th
2024   Alpine Endurance Team 35 Alpine A424   Paul-Loup Chatin
  Ferdinand Habsburg
  Charles Milesi
Hypercar 75 DNF DNF
36   Nicolas Lapierre
  Mick Schumacher
  Matthieu Vaxivière
88 DNF DNF

Timeline

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Current series/events
24 Hours of Le Mans 2009–present
FIA World Endurance Championship 2012, 2015–present
Former series
French Formula Three Championship 1993–2002
French Formula Renault Championship 2000, 2002
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup 2003
Formula 3 Euro Series 2003–2011
Formula Renault 3.5 Series 2008
European Le Mans Series 2009–2010, 2013–2014, 2020
FIA Formula 3 European Championship 2014–2015

References

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  1. ^ "Alpine is gunning for Le Mans glory with its A424 Hypercar". evo. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  2. ^ "Alpine demonstrates long-term commitment to WEC, buying stake in Signatech". RACER. 2024-09-25. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  3. ^ Lloyd, Daniel (2020-01-29). "Signatech, Richard Mille Linked to All-Female LMP2 Entry". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
  4. ^ Lloyd, Daniel (2021-01-20). "Richard Mille Racing Moves Up to WEC LMP2 Ranks". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
  5. ^ Dagys, John (14 September 2020). "Alpine Confirms LMP1 Program – Sportscar365". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  6. ^ "No Change For Alpine In 2022 Driver Squad | dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
  7. ^ Klein, Jamie (9 June 2023). "Alpine launches A424 Beta LMDh car for 2024 WEC campaign". Autosport. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
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Achievements
Preceded by Formula 3 Euro Series Teams' Champion
2010
Succeeded by