“Everything is under control... except the weather!” declares Philippe Sinault, looking skywards. “It’s been an intensive few days, with a lot of track time on Thursday. We started from a great base and haven’t tried to reinvent the wheel here. In qualifying, we had a go and we lost in that Thomas [Laurent] went straight off at the last corner. That’s Le Mans for you. We’re seventh or eighth from pole, so we’re performing well, which is the most important thing. United Autosports is a cut above in LMP2 because the team has made huge progress but also because it has optimised its driver line-ups to take into account the FIA bronze/silver/gold grading system. Those are the rules so hats off to them. They’ve got everything covered. They’re starting the race as favourites.”

Alpine firmly intends to challenge that status right from the start. “Team spirit is key,” he insists. “When we lost Nicolas Lapierre [the French driver now spearheads Cool Racing], who was a key element on our team, it took us time to recreate that spirit, but we got there gradually over winter. We’ve restablished the group dynamic, so we’re capable of victory. If you don’t have that team dynamic at Le Mans, you might as well stay at home.”

This year, Signatech Alpine is keener than ever given the news that has recently emerged on its future. “Three months ago, we were praying for the marque’s future,” the French team manager admits. “Now we know that Alpine will be competing in Formula One and launching a new Le Mans campaign. It’s fantastic news and the prospects are awesome.”

In 2021, the three-time LMP2 winning team (2016/18/19) will be moving up to LMP1 with overall victory as its goal.  

“It’s something we’ve been discussing with Alpine for several months now,” Sinault smiles. “We knew that an opportunity would arise, that it would make sense after several years of success in LMP2. We’ve always said that if, one day, a tiny window of opportunity opened, we’d think about it. And it opened...”

Next year, the current LMP1s will be allowed to race alongside the new hypercars, who will be finding their feet at Le Mans! Could that offer a unique opportunity to grab the win?

“Since I’ve been with Alpine, it’s always been a series of 'one-offs' which in the end, came together to create a great story,” Sinault explains. "The aim is to be present in 2021 to see whether the LMDH class, to be introduced in 2022, is worth exploring for Alpine. The firm’s top management will be watching so it’s up to us to show them what an amazing promotional platform it could be. They’ll then decide, but 2021 is our window of opportunity.”

We could say that the future starts today at 14:30. What better than a final LMP2 victory to launch the Alpine’s next programme in style?