Why the Valkyrie is Aston Martin's strongest push for Le Mans glory since 1959

Aston Martin is back at the pinnacle of sportscar racing. Not just back, but returning with what has to be its most concerted effort to win the Le Mans 24 Hours since its lone victory in the big race in 1959. More than that, the British manufacturer will for the first time mount a concurrent campaign in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America. And it is raring to go with a car that is set to capture the hearts and minds of fans around the world.

The Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar, which finally goes into battle when two cars contest the opening round of the 2025 World Endurance Championship in Qatar on 28 February, has the chance to surpass anything achieved by Aston since its triumph on the Circuit de la Sarthe with the DBR1 driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori in 1959. That includes the return of that car the following year in privateer hands, the ‘Project’ cars of 1962-64, the Nimrod Group C project that started early in the 1980s and the AMR1 at the end of the decade, and Prodrive’s efforts from the back end of the 2000s up to the disastrous AMR-One of 2011.

Those campaigns were to a greater or lesser extent undercooked. A third place in 1960 were the best they could manage between them at Le Mans. Expect more from the Valkyrie, a car that has now lost the AMR-LMH suffix revealed last year and is now simply the Valkyrie. It would be wrong to say of a car that was first announced at the 24 Hours in 2019 has been six years in the making because the project lay dormant for three or so of them, but Aston and its factory partner, the US-headquartered The Heart of Racing team, have been hard at work on the current project since before its announcement at the start of October in 2023.

The original LMH announced at Le Mans in 2019 was shelved early the following year on the announcement on the eve of the Daytona 24 Hours of what was billed as convergence: a new breed of IMSA machine, LMDh, would also be able to race in the WEC. Aston’s business case involved the sale of customer cars. LMDh undermined that.

Out of the original Valkyrie came a machine known as the AMR-Pro, a long-wheelbase track day variant of the Adrian Newey-conceived machine, but without the road car’s hybrid system. THOR, established for a GT Daytona class campaign with the Vantage GT3 in 2020, purchased one as a corporate tool. The question THOR patron Gabe Newell put to team principal Ian James was simple: “Why is this car not racing because it should be?”

That was in 2021, after which James started reaching out to Aston about the possibility of re-invigorating the Valkyrie race programme. “I got a ‘no’ initially, because the programme had been ended,” he remembers. “But I continued pursuing it and slowly the idea gained traction.”

Aston Martin's sole overall Le Mans triumph back in 1959

Photo by: Motorsport Images

A number of stars aligned to make it happen. They included the establishment of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, which acts as a conduit of technology between the race track and road, as well as the introduction of the Formula 1 budget cap for 2021 freeing up resources.

But, in an ironic twist, the LMDh regulations have had a lot to do with Aston’s return. The class has been instrumental in the growth of the top divisions of sportscar racing on the world stage and in North America. With Aston’s arrival, the WEC now has eight manufacturers. There’s two more, Acura and Lamborghini, competing in IMSA only, and then a pair of publicly-declared programmes on the way from Genesis and Ford. Many of its rivals on both sides of the Atlantic are also its competitors in the road car market place. There were compelling arguments for Aston to be involved at a time that Lawrence Stroll wanted to continue the marque’s traditions, only “louder and harder”.

The ‘new’ Valkyrie race programme was launched at the start of October in 2023. A first test, after initial systems running with an AMR-Pro, was set for the summer of last year. Aston hit its target: The car ran for the first time at Silverstone in July, first on the Stowe circuit without bodywork and then the following week on the full track in completed form.

"I would love to be able to reach the podium in year one. Is that going to be easy? No, because the competition is stacked. But it is a reasonable goal" Ian James

Ahead of the official launch of Aston’s 2025 campaigns in the respective Hypercar and GTP class of WEC and IMSA, the car had completed more than 15,000km (9000 miles) of testing on two fronts: early running in Europe was followed by a second car coming on stream in North America in October ahead of its one-car IMSA campaign that begins with the Sebring 12 Hours next month. That figure includes running at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar before Christmas and continues to rise. An outing at the official IMSA test at Sebring early in February added to the mileage of the car.

“I don’t think you can say you are ever ready, but we are happy with the mileage we have done,” says THOR team principal Ian James, who will continue to race in the WEC alongside his management duties in its LMGT3 Vantage run by the Prodrive/AMR squad. “We have confidence in the car.”

Adam Carter, who heads up the Valkyrie programme as Aston Martin’s head of endurance motorsport, is equally confident: “We have completed sufficient endurance relative to this stage in the programme and we will continue to ascertain the need for further development mileage as the programme evolves.”

Carter won’t be drawn on Aston’s plans for Le Mans simulations ahead of the 24 Hours in June, only saying that it “is approaching the demands of doing Le Mans with the necessary preparation”. It is known that there is a plan to stay on with its IMSA car at Sebring and put another 12 hours on the car the week after the race.

James expects a tough examination on its introduction into the top class before climbing up the ranks

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Aston’s targets and expectations in the WEC’s Hypercar class in season one are “reserved”, says James. “We want to run reliably and respectably, and then start moving up the grid through the season. We know that where the performance will be set by the series will put us towards the back of the grid.”

That’s a reference to how WEC organisers the FIA and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest manage the Balance of Performance. They have publicly stated that they will edge newcomers up towards the front, a strategy that was plain to see in 2024 as BMW and Alpine became ever more competitive through the season to the point where they were both able to get onto the podium before its conclusion.

A similar result for the Aston in its maiden season is James’s desire: “I would love to be able to reach the podium in year one. Is that going to be easy? No, because the competition is stacked. But it is a reasonable goal.”

James hints that results might be better in IMSA this year, and not only because the GTP field is slimmer, with five other manufacturers rather than the seven in WEC.

“If anything, IMSA want us to be competitive from the beginning,” he explains. “That is the view they have expressed to us; that they will do their best to slot us in straight away. Having a LMH in the series for the first time [racing against the LMDhs] is very important and they want to show the other manufacturers that they can bring their LMHs over and be competitive.”

The arrival of the Valkyrie does complicate the BoP, however, for two reasons. Firstly it is developed to a different subset in the LMH regulations to the Toyota, Peugeot and Ferrari racing in WEC. There are two columns in the rules titled Prototype and Hypercar: the rules allow a car to be developed from a road car, the option Aston has taken. Secondly the Valkyrie racer is a non-hybrid. The regulations would have allowed it to use the rear energy-retrieval system of the road car, but Aston from the outset back in 2019 opted against that.

“It is important that the race car represents the Valkyrie in its true form,” explains Carter. “At its heart is that V12 engine [developed in conjunction with Cosworth]. Using that V12 engine within what is allowed in the regulations and to meet the minimum weight, running as hybrid was not an option.”

The Valkyrie's arrival in WEC, making its official debut at the Prologue, means there are eight manufacturers in the top class

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Aston’s message has always been plain and simple. If you have an engine that pushes out 1100bhp when maximum power for the full powertrain in the Hypercar class is a shade under 700bhp, why dilute that with a hybrid system?

“If we didn’t have full trust and belief in the FIA, the ACO and IMSA we wouldn’t be partaking,” says Carter. “That is the great thing about the regulation set: it allows these different technologies to compete on an level playing field.”

That raises a question: will Aston be disadvantaged by running as a non-hybrid? There are pros as well as cons, says Carter. “There are many advantages and disadvantages on both sides."

"A lot of fans will be heading down to Le Mans just to see and hear the car"  Marco Sorensen

“Some people say that because our car is more conventional we are disadvantaged,” offers James. “But greater simplicity should make life easier for us. There’s a lot to do for the driver.”

Harry Tincknell, one of the first two WEC drivers announced for the THOR entries last November, agrees with that. He describes the constant knob turning and switch flicking as a “burden on the driver” and believes the non-hybrid approach “offers potential to be a bit more consistent”.

Tincknell will form a partnership with Tom Gamble in #007 in the WEC squad and they will be joined by Ross Gunn for this month’s Qatar 10-hour fixture, Le Mans and, most likely the eight-hour fixture in Bahrain that rounds out the season in November. Gunn is full time in THOR’s IMSA entry alongside Roman De Angelis. The Canadian will undertake WEC duties in the #009 entry with Alex Riberas, who was announced with Tincknell last year, and Marco Sorensen. What help Gunn and De Angelis get in the IMSA enduros hasn’t been defined as yet.

Tincknell agrees with his Aston Martin bosses that not having hybrid has its advantages for the drivers

Photo by: Drew Gibson

All six of the Valkyrie roster have links with Aston and THOR. Sorensen is a stalwart with the British marque who signed a new long-term deal last year to extend a stay that began back in 2015. Ditto Gunn, who progressed to the factory ranks one year later via its academy scheme. Tincknell, meanwhile, is returning to Aston after winning GTE Pro at Le Mans with the marque in 2020 while racing with Mazda in IMSA. He has come into the project via Multimatic Motorsports, a key partner in the development of the car and also in the Brackley-based THOR WEC team.

Gamble contested two races in a THOR GT Daytona class Vantage back in 2022 and has remained on the team’s radar ever since. Riberas and De Angelis have raced for THOR since its establishment to run the Vantage GT3 in IMSA in 2020. The team has made much of its desire to give people, not just drivers, chances, hence the desire to promote from within.

Putting together an all-British car for Le Mans was a no-brainer, reckons Carter. “While we are dictated by performance, the chance to field an all-British car at Le Mans was a fantastic opportunity,” he says. “When the names went down on paper and we started to arrange them, the opportunity arose.”

There is an excitement among the drivers about the Valkyrie racer. Sorensen marvels at the sound of the car, saying “when we ran the engine in full beast mode for the first time you could feel the noise in your chest”. He reckons that “a lot of fans will be heading down to Le Mans just to see and hear the car”.

Tincknell, already a two-time class winner at Le Mans, reckons that his time with Aston could end up being the “pinnacle moment” of his career. “Aston has won Le Mans outright before, but that was back in ’59,” he says. “We are now trying to do it again with this unbelievable sounding and looking car, and my name is on the side of it. It’s a pinch yourself moment.”

This article is one of many in the new monthly issue of Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the March 2025 issue and subscribe today.

All eyes will be on the Valkyrie's debut in Qatar

Photo by: Aston Martin Racing