Why Aston Martin's bet on Gamble

Oliver Gavin, five class wins at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Darren Turner three and Oliver Jarvis two. The record of Autosport BRDC Young Driver Award winners at the French enduro is quite phenomenal – 14 category victories in just over 20 years.

There has, however, been no overall triumph; just a series of near-misses. The latest Award alumnus to graduate to the top class at Le Mans is aiming to put that right. And he has time on his side. 

Tom Gamble, who claimed the 2018 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, has joined Aston Martin for its entry into the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class with the Valkyrie and The Heart of Racing squad at the age of just 23.

His story is quite different to the likes of Anthony Davidson, Jarvis and Jamie Davies, the Award winners to grace the overall podium at the 24 Hours. Davidson made it to Formula 1, while the single-seater careers of Jarvis and Davies continued in the years after they celebrated their success with Autosport on the stage at the Grosvenor House Hotel. Gamble, however, hasn’t raced a single-seater since his moment in the sun in London. 

Gamble switched to sportscars in year two of his professional career, after a solitary and far from unsuccessful season in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship (now GB3). The promise shown that year with Fortec Motorsport gained him his Award nomination.

His journey to becoming a factory Aston Martin driver with a WEC seat in the Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar has taken him through a multitude of series and categories around the world, moving from a jobbing silver-rated driver into the works ranks with McLaren and now on to Aston. 

Gamble shares the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie with Harry Tincknell and Ross Gunn

Photo by: JEP / Getty Images

The ambition to get to the point where he could challenge for an outright Le Mans victory was there from the start, and crystallised when he moved into the prototype ranks, first in LMP3 and then P2 in his second and third years of sportscar racing in 2020 and 2021.

Those were the years of a stream of announcements from manufacturers that they would be building machinery to race in the WEC’s Hypercar class and GTP in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America. 

“As soon as I went into sportscar racing in 2019, the goal was to get to the top class at Le Mans and fight to win that overall with a manufacturer,” states Gamble. “When all the manufacturers started showing interest in Hypercar, I think every sportscar driver’s goal was to get there.”

Gamble put himself in the frame during the formative years of a sportscar career that kicked off in 2019 with a campaign in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup with the WRT Audi squad.

“I was pretty much in the car every weekend and that allows you to jump in and show your pace straight away” Tom Gamble

He won the European Le Mans Series LMP3 crown the following year driving for United Autosports, and finished second overall on his graduation to LMP2 with the Anglo-American team in 2021. 

The 2022 season, one in which an inevitable upgrade to gold status occurred, was key in the Gamble journey: he raced for the THOR Aston squad for the first time, competing in three of the IMSA enduros with the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, and successfully tried out for a factory deal with McLaren at the end of the year. 

Gamble’s impressive Ligier run helped scoop Young Driver Formula 1 prize test

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Getty Images

“Racing for THOR was my first role as a gold, so it was definitely important in my career,” reckons Gamble, who raced in the regular GT Daytona pro-am division at the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours, and then moved into THOR’s GTD Pro entry for the Petit Le Mans IMSA finale at Road Atlanta.

Landing a McLaren works role for 2023 was also significant. Having a seat with a manufacturer changes perceptions of a driver, Gamble says. He was given a try-out in a 720S GT3 Evo on “a freezing cold December day at Snetterton”.

An invitation to join its factory roster quickly followed, along with a first race outing in a 720S on the opening weekend of the Asian Le Mans Series in Dubai the following February. The deal, however, wouldn’t be announced until March. 

“It was another step for me,” explains Gamble. “The 2023 season was a bit tricky because I didn’t have a full-time race programme, though I was doing a lot of testing. The following year I was doing GTWCE – Endurance and Sprint – and the British GT Championship [with Garage 59 and Optimum respectively].

“I did the Asian LMS and Daytona as well. I was pretty much in the car every weekend and that allows you to jump in and show your pace straight away. That was, I think, a big year for me. I learned a lot about being a factory driver and what the role beholds.”

Gamble admits that he has two fellow drivers to thank for his introductions to THOR and McLaren. Ross Gunn, who is joining him and Harry Tincknell in the #007 Valkyrie at Le Mans and selected WEC rounds, put his name forward to THOR team principal Ian James, while Ben Barnicoat did likewise with McLaren when he moved on from its books to race for Lexus in IMSA. 

While Gamble impressed during his prize drive in October 2019, he’d taken a pragmatic approach not to chase the F1 dream

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Getty Images

“Ben, who is a good friend, was moving on and said, ‘I think this guy would be a good fit for you’, and it kind of went from there,” recalls Gamble. “Ross was the one who introduced me to Ian, and now we’ve ended up together in the Valkyrie. I’ve got a lot to thank a couple of my fellow competitors for.”

And James at THOR. Gamble explains that he always kept in touch with the expat Brit after he landed his McLaren gig: “We got on well and when the Valkyrie programme was announced [in October 2023] I dropped him a little message saying congratulations.”

What Gamble didn’t do is lobby for a go in the Valkyrie as it was undergoing its development phase over the second half of last year: “I think he might have told me where to go; I thought I’d let him do any calling.”

“It put my name out there in the sportscar world. Years like that are character building. Everything happens for a reason, right?” Tom Gamble

When the call came to test the Valkyrie at Jerez in Spain at the end of last year it was “a pinch yourself moment”, says Gamble. “Suddenly I realised that the opportunity I’d been dreaming of was possibly on my doorstep. It was a big moment.”

James and THOR have always looked to foster young talent. Gamble’s place in the Valkyrie line-up, along with that of Roman De Angelis in the IMSA car, is a manifestation of that. “Ian always took an interest in what I was doing and believed in me,” continues Gamble, who is also lining up in non-clashing IMSA rounds at the wheel of a Vantage evo in GTD.

“Having raced for him, as well as getting the experience of racing prototypes and working with a manufacturer in McLaren, he obviously thought I would be a good fit. My job now is to justify his faith in me.”

On his way to European Le Mans Series LMP3 crown in 2020 with United Autosports

Photo by: Getty Images

Gamble has attained the holy grail of racing for a manufacturer at the top of the sportscar tree at a much younger age than the likes of Davidson, Davies and Jarvis. He has no regrets about abandoning his single-seater aspirations within months of his 17th birthday.

He does admit that he expected the “phone to be ringing off the hook” on the day after he won the Award. But he concedes that was probably unrealistic: even as he was starting out in single-seaters after racing for two seasons in Ginetta Junior, he understood the chances of realising the ambition to become an F1 driver were slim.

Gamble had an impressive first – and last – season on the ladder in BRDC F3. As a 16-year-old, he finished fifth in the points behind four drivers all with multiple years in single-seaters under their belts. The Brit, however, admits that he wasn’t entirely content with his campaign. 

“I actually made a few cock-ups, was a bit ambitious with a few moves, which undoubtedly cost me some positions in the championship,” he recalls. “I was actually quite disappointed with myself. But my main objective for that season was to be nominated for the Autosport Award, so to win that was a huge thing.”

There’s no sorrow on Gamble’s part that he wasn’t able to progress in single-seaters. There wasn’t the money to make the hoped step up to Formula Renault Eurocup, which explains the late deal to race for WRT in a Sprint-only GTWCE campaign in the Silver Cup class. 

“The results weren’t great, but doing that year in GTWCE had its benefits,” points out Gamble. “It put my name out there in the sportscar world. Years like that are character building. Everything happens for a reason, right?

Three pivotal IMSA enduro outings in 2022 for THOR Aston Martin squad

Photo by: Getty Images

“I have no regrets, because you see so many drivers spending a lot of money to get all the way up to Formula 2 and not getting the opportunity to move into F1, and then making the move into sportscars,” he explains. “The question is how much better off are you doing that than making the switch earlier?”

Gamble concedes that he probably wouldn’t be where he is today, with a factory Hypercar deal in his pocket, had he persisted in single-seaters after winning the Award. He has big aspirations now that he’s racing for a manufacturer at the sharp end of the WEC grid, though he’s aware that a Le Mans win this year is unrealistic. 

“We know we are playing catch-up, but the car has shown some good pace and got through the 12 Hours at Sebring” Tom Gamble

“We know we are playing catch-up, but the car has shown some good pace and got through the 12 Hours at Sebring – it was faultless there,” he says. “I have confidence that Aston Martin and the team can keep taking steps forward and that we can be challenging for podiums before we know it.”

An outright victory at Le Mans remains the big aspiration for Gamble, to finally chalk one up for a winner of an accolade now known as the Silverstone Autosport BRDC Award. Of the lack of a winner at the 24 Hours so far, he reckons, “that’s something I need to put right”.

Young Driver Award winners at Le Mans 

The class winners

Oliver Gavin (1991 Award winner): 2002, 2004-06 GTS/GT1, 2015 GTE Pro (Corvette Racing)

Jamie Davies (1994 Award winner): 2003 GTS (Veloqx/Prodrive)

Darren Turner (1996 Award winner): 2007-08 GT1, 2017 GTE Pro (Aston Martin Racing)

Jonny Kane (1995 Award winner): 2010 LMP2 (Strakka)

Oliver Turvey (2006 Award winner): 2014 LMP2 (Jota)

Oliver Jarvis (2005 Award winner): 2017 LMP2 (Jackie Chan/Jota) & 2024 LMP2 (United Autosports)

Paul di Resta (2004 Award winner): 2020 LMP2 (United)

The outright podiums

Jamie Davies (1994 Award winner): 2004 2nd (Veloqx Audi)

Anthony Davidson (2000 Award winner): 2013 2nd, 2014 3rd (Toyota)

Oliver Jarvis – (2005 Award winner): 2012 3rd, 2013 3rd, 2016 3rd (Audi), 2017 2nd (Jackie Chan/Jota)

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Gamble concedes Aston Hypercar effort is playing catch-up and victory at Le Mans this year is unrealistic

Photo by: Andreas Beil