Also in October 1971 the two Alpines made an appearance at important Brands Hatch F3 round. Depailler drove a fantastic race keeping ahead of most of the British F3 teams to finish first. A first sign of what the Alpine was capable of when taking on the British rivals. But, after the race he was disqualified, for somewhat dubious reasons, for having overtaken under the yellow flag. The French team could not be convinced that they had not been cheated, and so the devastated team went home.

This is where the 1972 Monaco F3 race began. The first ‘mini’ Monaco GP was run back in the days of Formula Junior, since that time it grew in stature every year, even in 1972 becoming the most important F3 race on the calender. Many Monaco winners ended up as regular Grand Prix drivers. The race held on the day before the real Monaco attracted as much as 100 entries for only 40 grid positions. Only 70 cars were allowed to practice, consequently competition was fierce with many having to wave goodbye to the little monarchy before even driving a single lap. The fierce rivalry also attracting many F1 team managers, who could be seen trying to scout the latest young talent. The 1972 event had an extra ingredient added to the atmosphere of intense competition, namely, as before mentioned, the rivalry between the determined Alpine team and the numerous British teams. As Alpine wanted revenge for the Brands Hatch round.

Alpine had started the 1972 season successfully, namely with a win for Michel Leclère at the first round of the French championship at Nogaro. The new A364 was a new no frills construction, albeit looking almost exactly the same as the A360. The car got a new space-frame chassis designed by André de Cortanze. The suspension was revised giving it a wider track and with the rear brakes going inboard. The unique body was left largely untouched, except for a few small changes made by Alpine’s aerodynamicist who was also responsible for designing the gorgeus Alpine sports cars. The body, as on the A360, completely enclosed the car making it much sleeker than other F3 cars at time. The Alpines were even the first to sport the enclosed bodywork. But the competition were rapid to take over the design, with many wrapping their chassis into aerodynamic bodyworks by the end of 1972. The four cylinder Renault engine, based on the engine from a Renault 1600, was further refined by Dudot and was undoubtably the most powerful F3 at the time. With 130hp at 6500rpm it was able take on and win from the most powerful Ford engines tuned by the likes of Vegatune or Novamotor. The engine was mated to a in-house developed Alpine five-speed gearbox.

Now entering the event with an A364, Alpine was determined to win the Monaco event. As proved earlier in the season it was possible. Depailler, who graduated to the F2 team for 1972, returned for the big races. One of which was of course Monaco. The team arrived in the Principality with three cars, Depailler, Michel Leclere, and Alain Serpaggi being the drivers. Leclere and Serpaggi were new members of the team, and for both 1972 marked their first year in F3, both hacving graduated from France’s answer to Formula Ford, Formula France. Consequently Leclere and Serpaggi, could not be expected to go out and dominate a race as competitiveas the ‘mini’ Monaco GP (even though Lewis Hamilton proved the opposite just a few years ago). It was for this reason that Depailler was brought into the team. Two years of F3 experienceand his natural talent, was surely more than enough to to aloft the Tricolour.

The cream of the worldwide F3 crop was present at Monaco, but from the first practice, the race appeared to be between two men, Depailler and Britain’s latest F3 ace Roger Williamson driving a GRD 372-Ford. Funnily enough Williamson was the guy who lifted the trophy at Brands Hatch the year before after Depailler was disqualified. Depailler and Williamson were kept apart in the pre-race heats, both driving their cars to pole-position for their respective races. Depailler having set the faster time by a fifth of a second. Depailler was first to drive. Run in dry conditions, the young Frenchman had no difficulty leading the race from flag to flag. Of the other Alpine drivers, Leclere confirmed his potential by finishing fourth, but Serpaggi, 12th, failed to qualify for the final race. Williamson on the other hand had a similar race as Depailler’s, leading from the first corner to the chequered flag. Because he drove the faster heat time Williamson was on pole position for the final.

The scene was set for a fabulous final the next day, but as Saturday dawned the sky over Monaco was overcast, and soon the rain began to fall until, as the F3 cars rolled out on to the grid, the Monaco circuit was absolutely soaked. As the starter dropped his flag Depailler absolutely flied, leaving Williamson behind amid a plume of spray. Williamson, now in fifth place now attempted to outbrake everyone in the first corner in order to get near to the Frenchman, but made a mistake and spun, dropping down the field. While Williamson was driving an inspired race to get back to the front, Depailler was opening a gap between himself and the rest of the grid. In the meantime teammate Leclere threw away a comfortable fifth position by spinning his way into last place.

All eyes were now on Williamson, now challenging for second place, but on his 11th lap Williamson tried a bit too hard and hit the barrier, wrecking his GRD completely. Depailler now eased off, and kept a buffer of six seconds to the following pack for the remaining 13 laps. Leclere in the meantime fought his way back up the field to finish sixth. Revenge for the year before, could be said, was achieved.

Since the start of the 1600cc formula many questions were asked as to the legality of the Renault engine, these doubts had never been fully resolved and came to a head after the Monaco race. The doubt was about the air restrictors, they should have had a diameter of 21.5mm. After each race, according to regulations, the cold air boxes of the leading cars were tested to ensure that it was airtight and no extra air was entering the engine. After Monaco race the same ritual was applied, but this time the winning Alpine was checked by the scrutineers in private. After that Britain’s second placed Lotus 73 of Tony Trimmer and Colin Vandervell’s Ensign LNF3 were checked in public. When the British requested to see the Alpine also tested in public they were told that the vacuum tester for the airbox had been ‘accidentally’ broken; in the resulting furore the police were called in and the British drivers forcibly dislodged!

In the end Monaco was the highlight (did they cheat?) of the season for Alpine, even though Leclere managed to win the French championship and Serpaggi a number of races, the French team didn’t achieve another victory against a field with the ‘crème de la crème’ of the F3 contigent. In the end the fact that the A364 provided the opportunity for two novices to achieve many wins, showed how good and forgiving it was.