Aston Martin has announced major plans to compete in the highest level of endurance racing with its Valkyrie hypercar.
From 2025, the Valkyrie will be entered in the top Hypercar class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, aiming for outright victory in the famous French race.
The Valkyrie will also be entered in both the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IMSA). Plus, it will race in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and at the Sebring 12 Hours.
This will make the Aston Martin Valkyrie the world’s first road car-inspired hypercar to compete simultaneously in motorsport’s top two endurance championships.
‘The pursuit of excellence’
Aston Martin originally intended the Valkyrie to compete in the Hypercar class, having first announced plans in 2019. First developed in collaboration with Red Bull Racing, the road-going version features a 6.5-litre Cosworth V12 engine producing more than 1,000hp.
The Hypercar-class racing version of the Valkyrie retains this high-revving naturally aspirated engine, but is tuned to meet the demands of endurance racing – and the Balance of Performance (BOP) regulations.
Development of the Valkyrie Hypercar will take place at the newly built AMR Technology Campus. This is located alongside Aston Martin’s Formula One team at Silverstone, bringing together the brand’s two main motorsport endeavours.
Lawrence Stroll, executive chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda, said: “Performance is the lifeblood of everything that we do at Aston Martin, and motorsport is the ultimate expression of this pursuit of excellence”.
Aiming for Le Mans victory
Aston Martin has enjoyed considerable success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans over the years, having first competed there in 1923. Overall, the British marque has achieved 19 class victories, including an outright win in 1959.
The Heart of Racing team will be responsible for running the Valkyrie programmes in both WEC and IMSA. Having partnered with Aston Martin since 2020, Heart of Racing has achieved championship wins in the IMSA GTD category.
Aston Martin also announced plans to race new GT3 and GT4 cars based upon the Vantage. This means the company will compete in all forms of sports car racing, along with Formula One, all at the same time.
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