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Victor Martins of Alpine described the most unsettling moment of his lengthy four-hour stint in the FIA World Endurance Championship finale at Monza as the instant urge to use the bathroom, and he conceded that fatigue had set in by the end.
He piloted the No. 36 Signatech Alpine A424 for four hours and 23 minutes after taking over from Jules Gounon during the second round of stops.
He remained aboard as the team elected not to incur more time penalties by swapping drivers again, with Martins spending the bulk of his four hours pursuing the leading No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R.
Yet he could not deliver Alpine’s fairy-tale victory in its final World Endurance Championship appearance, crossing the line five seconds behind the Cadillac.
Martins joked that he had “respect for the program” and therefore was determined to avoid an in-car bathroom mishap on the car’s last outing.
The most troubling aspect, he explained, was the incessant urge to relieve himself, as he kept hydrating and sweating yet nothing settled.
“It was a limiting factor, and at one point we debated on the radio whether it was too tricky and whether there was a window to slot Jules back in; we would have done it if possible.”
“In the end, I stopped drinking and that helped stabilize things.”
Martins said he tried every option to secure Alpine a victory in its swansong but ultimately had no answer for the leading Cadillac.
There was a moment in the closing stint when Martins was closing in on Earl Bamber by about a second per lap as the Cadillac driver saved energy, but the roles soon reversed and the Alpine fell further back again.
“When I got in the car I felt there was everything to play for in the race,” Martins explained.
“I did make a late push (closing in) but then GT traffic killed my momentum and I lost a lot of time again.”
“I think they also started with a larger energy reserve to be able to have some left if we needed to fight.”
“At the start there was a clear energy gap, but as I pushed and he conserved, that gap began to close again.”
While disappointed not to deliver Alpine a second WEC triumph, Martins said the result was much easier to digest than at Fuji, where the French manufacturer appeared set for a 1-2 until a late safety car allowed Toyota to gamble on strategy successfully.
“It’s the same goal as any other race—you want to win. It doesn’t change just because the race is ending,” he said.
“Of course it makes the achievement even more meaningful for all the team’s staff.”
“At the end of the day, what matters is that we felt we left nothing on the table, and I believe we did.”
“Of course I crossed the line feeling ecstatic, and then I realized we hadn’t won, and it was a case of, ‘Come on, we did everything right today and we maximized.’”
“It wasn’t like Fuji—that had a different feeling, with us leading about 80 percent of the race. Here we had to fight for every inch.”
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