Alpine Esports had an action-packed week as the team participated in both the kick of the F1 Esports Series 2022 and the Le Mans Virtual Series.

Over five days, Alpine Esports competed in a total of four races and saw the team lay the foundation for a highly anticipated season.

F1 Esports Series

After three nail-biting races in the first event for the F1 Esports Series, Alpine Esports landed in 9th place in the team standings with 5 points.

The first event in the F1 Esports Series proved to be a learning experience for the Alpine Esports team.

During the first round in Bahrain, Patrik Sipos saw a strong start before receiving a 5-second penalty for entering the pitlane too quickly.

Unfortunately, this blunder put him out of points contention, resulting in him finishing in 18th place with Filip Prešnadjer driving without issue to finish in 11th place.

Driver Patrik Sipos commented: “In general, I think we can get some positivity from this event. We knew that we may have some difficulties, finally, less important than expected. I made some mistakes, I will try to correct that for the next event, Silverstone showed us that we have the potential.”

The second round took place at Imola, Italy and after narrowly avoiding a crash with reigning double world champion Jarno Opmeer, Patrik and Filip qualified in 17th and 13th place, respectively.

A mistake from Patrik resulted in a car spin and a broken front wing, as a result, he finished in 18th place, and Filip finished in 15th place.

In round 3 virtually at Silverstone, Great Britain, saw the debut of 16-year-old driver Luke Smith who qualifying in 7th place, with Patrik qualifying in 8th place with both drivers making Q3.

After an impressive race, Luke finished in 10th place, earning his first point of the series as Patrik finished in 8th place.

Driver Luke Smith said: “I’m pleased with my performance in the qualifiers, reaching Q3 and competing against drivers of this calibre is an incredible experience – I gave everything I had during the race.

“I lacked rhythm during the race, this is something I will improve for the next event. Overall, I’m satisfied with my performance, my first point for my first race. We are now getting focused on the second event.”

Le Man’s Virtual Series

Le Mans Virtual Series’ 8 Hours of Bahrain race saw an impressive performance from the Alpine Esports team. After heart-wrenching technical issues, Alpine Esports placed 17th in the race, earning 1 point. 

Tom Lartilleux began the endurance race in 7th position before Rory Macduff took over and fought for a position at the top.

For the final attack, Collin Spork took the wheel however uncontrollable technical issues began to arise.

Driver Collin Spork said: “Of course, I am disappointed with the result, the race started perfectly, and we were going to finish in the top 5. Despite that, we showed that we had a great pace and a lot of potential. We will come back stronger to rise to the top of the leaderboard.”

Collin did set the fastest lap in the LMP category with an astonishing lap time of 1:42.606.