7) It’s also had a go at open-wheel racing
When you’ve already won WRC and the Le Mans 24 Hours, you might as well have a crack at open-wheel racing too. The brand first entered a Formula 3 car in competition in 1971, and a year later ventured into Formula 2, but because Renault didn’t have a suitable engine on hand, the chassis couldn’t carry the Alpine name and they were known as Elf, after the oil company. Carrying different chassis names, Alpine won the 1976 and 1977 European F2 championships and then created the Alpine A500 Formula 1 car, which served as a prototype for the very successful turbocharged Renault RS01.
