Signatech

(Redirected from Alpine Elf Team)

Signatech, formerly known as Signature, is a French auto racing team and racing car constructor that competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

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
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Charles Milesi
France Nicolas Lapierre
Germany Mick Schumacher
France Matthieu Vaxivière
France Jules Gounon
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

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.[1] 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.[2]

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.[3] The team continued with this lineup in 2022.[4] 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.[5]

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

YearEntrantNo.CarDriversClassLapsPos.Class
Pos.
2009 Signature Plus12Courage-Oreca LC70E-Judd Didier André
Franck Mailleux
Pierre Ragues
LMP134411th10th
2010 Signature Plus008Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 Vanina Ickx
Franck Mailleux
Pierre Ragues
LMP1302DNFDNF
2011 Signatech Nissan26Oreca 03-Nissan Soheil Ayari
Franck Mailleux
Lucas Ordóñez
LMP23209th2nd
2012 Signatech Nissan23Oreca 03-Nissan Olivier Lombard
Franck Mailleux
Jordan Tresson
LMP234016th9th
26 Nelson Panciatici
Pierre Ragues
Roman Rusinov
35110th4th
2013 Signatech Alpine36Alpine A450-Nissan Tristan Gommendy
Nelson Panciatici
Pierre Ragues
LMP231714th8th
2014 Signatech Alpine36Alpine A450b-Nissan Paul-Loup Chatin
Nelson Panciatici
Oliver Webb
LMP23557th3rd
2015 Signatech Alpine36Alpine A450b-Nissan Vincent Capillaire
Paul-Loup Chatin
Nelson Panciatici
LMP2110DNFDNF
2016 Signatech Alpine36Alpine A460-Nissan Nicolas Lapierre
Gustavo Menezes
Stéphane Richelmi
LMP23575th1st
2017 Signatech Alpine Matmut35Alpine A470-Gibson André Negrão
Nelson Panciatici
Pierre Ragues
LMP23624th3rd
36 Romain Dumas
Gustavo Menezes
Matt Rao
35110th8th
2018 Signatech Alpine Matmut36Alpine A470-Gibson Nicolas Lapierre
André Negrão
Pierre Thiriet
LMP23675th1st
2019 Signatech Alpine Matmut36Alpine A470-Gibson Nicolas Lapierre
André Negrão
Pierre Thiriet
LMP23686th1st
2020 Signatech Alpine Elf36Alpine A470-Gibson Thomas Laurent
André Negrão
Pierre Ragues
LMP23678th4th
Richard Mille Racing Team50Oreca 07-Gibson Tatiana Calderón
Sophia Flörsch
Beitske Visser
36413th9th
2021 Alpine Elf Matmut36Alpine A480-Gibson Nicolas Lapierre
André Negrão
Matthieu Vaxivière
Hypercar3673rd3rd
Richard Mille Racing Team1Oreca 07-Gibson Tatiana Calderón
Sophia Flörsch
Beitske Visser
LMP274DNFDNF
2022 Alpine Elf Team36Alpine A480-Gibson Nicolas Lapierre
André Negrão
Matthieu Vaxivière
Hypercar36223rd5th
Richard Mille Racing Team1Oreca 07-Gibson Charles Milesi
Sébastien Ogier
Lilou Wadoux
LMP236613th9th
2023 Alpine Elf Team35Oreca 07-Gibson Olli Caldwell
André Negrão
Memo Rojas
LMP232219th9th
36 Julien Canal
Charles Milesi
Matthieu Vaxivière
32712th4th

Timeline

Current series/events
24 Hours of Le Mans2009–present
FIA World Endurance Championship2012, 2015–present
Former series
French Formula Three Championship1993–2002
French Formula Renault Championship2000, 2002
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup2003
Formula 3 Euro Series2003–2011
Formula Renault 3.5 Series2008
European Le Mans Series2009–2010, 2013–2014, 2020
FIA Formula 3 European Championship2014–2015

References

External links

Achievements
Preceded by Formula 3 Euro Series Teams' Champion
2010
Succeeded by