Aston Martin confirms 2025 Le Mans entry with Valkyrie racer
Aston will take on Toyota, Peugeot and Ferrari in the Hypercar class
Aston Martin returns to top class of world endurance racing with last-ever pure-combustion V12 hypercar
Aston Martin will enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2025 with six Valkyrie racers taking on Toyota, Peugeot and Ferrari in the Hypercar class.
The firm announced plans to race in the top class with its 12-pot hypercar at La Sarthe in 2019, but these plans were later put on ice and it was only in 2022 that chairman Lawrence Stroll suggested it had become a possibility again.
When asked about the future of the Valkyrie's Cosworth-developed V12, Aston Martin racing technologies' engineering director Adam Carter said: "You can never say never, but at the moment there is nothing else on the horizon."
He added that the development of the hypercar will be a strong influence on its electric vehicles programme as it moves away from combustion cars, particularly with reference to keeping weight down and long-term durability up.
“I’m a racer myself. I have been all my life. Racing is in my blood, which is why I’m here. We should be racing in whichever category aligns with the message we are trying to deliver for Aston Martin,” he told Autocar.
The programme has now been officially revived, and in a ceremony at Aston’s Silverstone racing headquarters, Stroll said: “Aston Martin’s return to the pinnacle of endurance racing will allow us to build a deeper connection with our customers and community, many of whom found their passion for the brand through our past success at Le Mans.”
Aston’s contender is based on the track-only Valkyrie AMR Pro – originally developed with Le Mans in mind – and will be the first hypercar to compete in both the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championships (IMSA) in the US.
The firm remained tight-lipped on who will be piloting the racers, however said a selection process will begin next week. The driver lineup will not include the firm's current Formula 1 drivers.
Being based on the AMR Pro, it will not feature the road car's hybrid propulsion drivetrain, and will have a total power output capped at 670bhp, in line with LMh balance of performance regulations.
Being run in partnership with US-based sports car squad Heart of Racing, which currently competes in the GT class of sports car racing, the Valkyrie will also compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours, Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, making Aston Martin the only manufacturer competing at all levels of sports car and GT racing, as well as Formula 1.
The development of the racing Valkyrie will be informed by the brand's "complex knowledge-base" that it has built up in its involvement in Formula 1, which Stroll says will eventually trickle down to its road cars.
The prototype, currently undergoing testing at Silverstone, will use an endurance-optimised and detuned version of the 6.5-litre, naturally aspirated, 11,500rpm Cosworth V12 used by the road-going Valkyrie.
It is underpinned by a chassis made entirely from carbonfibre, and will be the first car on the endurance grid to be based on an existing production car - the Valkyrie.
Adam Carter, engineering director at Aston Martin Performance Technologies, said: “Valkyrie takes us back into the top tier of sports car racing and, together with our partners, we are absolutely confident that we can deliver a race car with the potential and the performance capabilities to fight alongside the benchmark machinery in the class."
Aston has also announced plans to develop racers for the GT3 and GT4 classes based on the heavily updated Vantage, due in 2024, which it says "will conform to all existing and new GT rule-sets, including the new-for-2024 LMGT3 regulations". The GT3 car will use the same 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 as the current Vantage, however the GT4 car will use an evolution of that engine that will power the upcoming Vantage.
When asked for clues as to the output of the new V8, the firm said: "look at what the DBX 707 is to the DBX", suggesting it will be an evolutionary step up in power, rather than a total rework.
This will replace the current Vantage GTE, which was introduced in 2018 and has since claimed three class victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Aston Martin has a long and prestigious history at Le Mans, and yet despite a number of class wins in the GT category, it can boast only a single overall success: when Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby steered a DBR1 to victory in 1959.
