Aston Martin to field Valkyrie for Le Mans return in 2025

MANILA: Aston Martin bared its plan to make a comeback at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, saying that it will field the Valkyrie into the fight for the event’s overall victory.

Aside from joining the aforementioned series, the Gaydon-headquartered automaker said that at least one Valkyrie racecar will participate in the Martin in the top Hypercar class of each of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championships (IMSA) from 2025 — which means that the hypercar will also be in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.

Aston Martin Lagonda Executive Chairman Lawrence Stroll expressed pride over the latest announcement.

“Performance is the lifeblood of everything that we do at Aston Martin, and motorsport is the ultimate expression of this pursuit of excellence,” he said.

Stroll noted that the company has won Le Mans in 1959 and its class 19 times over the past 95 years. “Now we return to the scene of those first triumphs aiming to write new history with a racing prototype inspired by the fastest production car Aston Martin has ever built.”

He also said that aside from its presence in the Formula 1 World Championship, Aston Martin’s return to Le Mans will help them build a deeper connection with their customers and community — believing that many of them found their passion through the brand’s past success at Le Mans.

“And of course, the complex knowledge-base we are building through our F1 team is data that Aston Martin Performance Technologies can harness to further enhance the capabilities of the Valkyrie racecar at Le Mans, in WEC and IMSA. Just as the learnings we gain through endurance competition will feed directly into our road car programs, further improving the ultimate performance of our products. I would like to thank Gabe Newell and Heart of Racing for partnering with Aston Martin on this program, and I look forward to working with him and the team as we aim for success in the greatest endurance race of them all,” Stroll explained.

Over nearly a decade, more than 240 drivers joined Le Mans using Aston Martin vehicles — in 27 different chassis and engine combinations.

Per Aston Martin, the Valkyrie AMR Pro was originally designed and developed to meet the Le Mans Hypercar regulations and now, Aston Martin Performance Technologies started developing the Valkyrie’s competition prototype version. It will then be homologated for the WEC Hypercar and IMSA GTP classes ahead of the 2025 season.

The Aston Martin Valkyrie racecar will use a modified version of the Cosworth-built 6.5-liter naturally aspirated V12 engine.

Once homologated, the Heart of Racing team will spearhead Aston Martin’s programs in both WEC and IMSA as the Valkyrie race car becomes the first purebred hypercar to participate in both championships, and the only one among its rivals that can trace its origins back to an existing production car.

“It’s a privilege to be able to bring Aston Martin back to the top of endurance racing with the Heart of Racing. Our team has grown exponentially since we began racing with those famous wings at Daytona in 2020. We understand and are aligned with the ethos of the brand and we have developed our own systems and technologies to extract the maximum performance of the cars we compete with. Our understanding of Valkyrie is strong and we have worked closely with it through our customer activation programs for two years now,” Heart of Racing Team Principal Ian James was quoted as saying.

“This HOR team has big ambitions in endurance racing, and this is absolutely the right time for us to step into the top classes of WEC and IMSA and challenge for overall honors. This is not an easy target, but between our partners and the support of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, it is one we have all the tools and capabilities in place to hit the bullseye with.”

Photos from Aston Martin

Also read:

Here’s the first Aston Martin Valkyrie customer car

Check out the track-only Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro hypercar

Up close and personal with the beautiful Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro