Alpine Wins the First World Rally Championship

In the Alpine ranks, enthusiasm is absolute. Drivers Bernard Darniche, Jean-Luc Thérier, and Jean Pierre Nicolas are thrilled as they see the opportunity to claim the title in this championship with the efficient "Berlinette," weighing just 600 kilos and boasting 180 horsepower.

Such is their morale that by the end of 1972, they gather to "divide" the events they plan to win, as Thérier recounted in an interview years ago. Darniche "claims" victory in Monte-Carlo, Nicolas does the same in Portugal, and Thérier in Greece and Morocco. For their rivals, Fiat, Ford, and Saab, they "leave" Sweden and the 1000 Lakes.

It seems presumptuous, almost crazy, but the confidence of these men in the Berlinette, the Alpine A110 after several rally seasons worldwide, is total. This is complemented by a man of strong, very strong personality: Jacques Cheinisse.

Appointed in 1968 by Jean Rédélé, the creator of Alpine, as head of the competition department of his firm, Cheinisse was nicknamed "Le Grand" or "Papa" for his paternal behavior with the drivers. He had a determined, sometimes reckless character. In his youth, he had been an Alpine driver (with the A110 and A210) when the Dieppe brand participated in Le Mans in the sixties. Incidentally, Thérier recounts that once Cheinisse decided that the Maison Blanche corners could be taken flat out, costing him six months in the hospital.

As head of Alpine's competition, at the Morocco Rally, he decided to rent a plane to assist the team from the air. And, wanting to outdo his rivals (Citroën also used aerial assistance), he decided to throw spare tires from the plane's door himself. The problem was that these, upon hitting the ground, bounced and often rolled in all directions. Thus, Alpine drivers had to run to retrieve them. He was not a team leader who encouraged his drivers to maintain a position or moderate their behavior. On the contrary, when one of them finished three rallies without going off, even if they won, he would grab them by the shoulders and say they were running without risk, below their potential.

Thus, it is not surprising that the A110s returned from rallies to the Dieppe workshop quite battered, and the mechanics spent nights restoring them to their original state. He even bet boxes of champagne with the technicians: "You can't make an A110 weigh less than 600 kilos, can you?" And then, before paying his bet, he would weigh the car three or four times.

But if this audacious side of Cheinisse's personality was there, there was "another" Cheinisse.

We know that upon returning from the Geneva Motor Show in 1963, newly hired by Alpine, he left a comprehensive study on customer expectations, the advantages and disadvantages of the Alpine brand compared to its competitors, on Jean Rédélé's desk. He invented what, 20 years later, would become the principle of benchmarking. He conducted this study without his boss asking for anything, except to manage the stand. It is not surprising that Rédélé eventually appointed him Alpine's commercial director before entrusting him with the competition department.

One of Renault's most talented leaders, President Raymond Levy, would say of him: "Jacques Cheinisse is perhaps the only one who really knows what a car is and what it should do."

And his intelligence and organizational skills, choosing the best technicians to prepare the engines, were key to the Berlinette's rally triumphs: it is not surprising that he was also called "Monsieur Alpine-Bis."

For the 1973 season, Cheinisse had full-time drivers Bernard Darniche, Jean Luc Thérier, and Jean Pierre Nicolas. He also had Ove Anderson, Jean Claude Andruet, Jean François Piot, and Jean Ragnotti as reinforcements in rallies where Alpine "had" to win, such as Monte-Carlo and the Tour de Corse.

On January 19, 1973, the first rally of the newly created World Championship began. Four days later, what seemed like madness on paper, a boast by the Alpine team drivers, became a reality. Against Mikkola, Warmbold, or Blomqvist, the men of the A110 Berlinettes occupied the first, second, third, fifth, sixth, and tenth places. The first place went to Jean Claude Andruet, with "Biche" as co-driver. Andruet was capable of leaving a stage, abandoning and losing a race, to take a bird or a hedgehog he had run over to the vet.

But back to our story. Although the distribution of victories did not occur that season as the Alpine drivers had planned in December 1972, it did not matter much. In thirteen rallies, they achieved six victories: Monte-Carlo (Andruet); Morocco (Darniche); Corsica (Nicolas), and Portugal, Acropolis, and San Remo for Thérier. This was complemented by four second places and five third places, including a historic one at the Swedish Rally. And we say historic because it was the first time a non-Nordic driver stood on the podium.

The Alpine A110s had won on all types of terrain, from the ice and snow of Monte-Carlo to the dirt of Morocco or the stones of Greece. Jean Rédélé's brand claimed the world manufacturers' title, and if there had been one for drivers, Jean Luc Thérier would have been crowned.

That total dominance by the Alpine men would not be repeated. Renault, which powered the A110s and provided a significant part of the competition budget, began to take full control of Dieppe. Alpine never received much from the State. It could even be said that it was the State, through Giscard d'Estaing, that greatly contributed to Alpine's financial problems.

The year Rédélé made significant investments to build Epinay, expand Dieppe, and create the Thiron-Gardais plant, he had developed a financing plan that was completely nullified by a retroactive credit control measure that Giscard implemented after regaining his position as Minister of Finance in 1969.

Thus, in 1974, Rédélé ended up selling Alpine to Renault, and Gerard Larousse came to lead the firm's racing efforts. The competition team of Rédélé and Cheinisse, two unique characters, was now history.