In the No. 35 entered by Baxi DC Racing Alpine, David Cheng and Ho-Pin Tung, both already confirmed, will compete along with 2013 and 2014 ELMS champion Nelson Panciatici. He also raced in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2015 with Signatech-Alpine.

In the second car (No. 36) of Signatech-Alpine's brood, Nicolas Lapierre and Gustavo Menezes will be joined by Stéphane Richelmi. He comes from single-seaters as a driver in the World Series by Renault then the GP2 Series for several seasons. Last year, he already dipped his toe in endurance at the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS. So now the 25-year-old will take on driving a prototype.

Now that the drivers have been selected, it's time for testing, starting with three days at Motorland Aragón (March 7-9) then the Circuit Paul Ricard at Le Castellet, where the two A460s will be presented on Thursday, March 24th at 7:00 p.m. The next day, the cars will participate in the WEC official tests known as the Prologue (March 25th and 26th).

Philippe Sinault (Signatech-Alpine Team Principal): "We are thrilled to have Nelson Panciatici on board with us once more. He has won two ELMS titles with Signatech-Alpine and will bring his speed and experience to our association with DC Racing. It is also very satisfying to have enlisted the services of Stéphane Richelmi for the N°36 car. Our driver line-ups have now been finalised and I think they illustrate the determination behind Alpine’s racing programme for 2016. In their hands, the two A460s will be capable of fighting at the very front. […] I would like to express my disappointment at not having been able to keep Paul-Loup Chatin with us in 2016. He has contributed a great deal to the team and to our results these past two seasons. It was a hard decision to take but we hope we will be able to work with him again in the future because he is part of the Alpine family."

David Bristol / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

Quotation from team press release. 

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, WEDNESDAY JUNE 10 2014, FREE PRACTICE. Nelson Panciatici will once again drive an Alpine in 2016 and will participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the fifth time.