- Aston Martin with Heart of Racing will enter two Valkyrie AMR-LMH supercars in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans
- Aston Martin backs FIA/Automobile Club de l’Ouest regulations endorsing minimum two-car entries in top WEC class from 2025
- Valkyrie AMR-LMH testing continues as track test debut nears
- Aston Martin and Heart of Racing remain committed to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Valkyrie AMR-LMH debut in 2025
Friday, June 14, 2024, Le Mans, France: Aston Martin and the Heart of Racing works team will return to the top class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with two Valkyrie AMR-LMH supercars in 2025 as the ultra-luxury British sports car marque bids to win the prestigious race for the first time since 1959 .
Aston Martin plans to enter two of its Valkyrie AMR-LMH supercars at all rounds of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship [WEC], subject to acceptance of its registration. This follows a regulation change by the organizer of the Le Mans event, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest [ACO] and the sport’s governing body the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile [FIA], stating that each participating manufacturer must enter at least two cars in the Hypercar category from 2025 onwards. The new rule was announced earlier this morning during the official press conference ahead of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
Aston Martin and its Heart of Racing partner are delighted to support this change in regulations in the interest of working together to improve the sporting environment for the benefit of all. Aston Martin will continue to work closely with both organizations moving forward and throughout the Valkyrie AMR-LMH program.
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: “You can trace Aston Martin’s endurance racing roots back to the brand’s earliest days. Indeed, we first raced at Le Mans more than 95 years ago – something no other road supercar manufacturer can say. We are very proud of our association with this great event, and with that in mind, it is very clear that we are committed to the concept of WEC supercars and bringing our famous Wings back to the forefront of international sports car racing, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans . In 2025, with our works team, Heart of Racing, we intend to put two Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH supercars on the grid, to compete alongside a fantastic line-up of the world’s best sports car manufacturers, and we are doing our best to ensure that we can fight on the front of this space. The Valkyrie AMR-LMH program is on schedule with significant development taking place behind the scenes ahead of the car’s track debut later this summer. We then look forward to an intensive testing period to put miles on the car and learn everything we can before its planned approval in the autumn.”
The race-optimised Valkyrie AMR-LMH carbon fiber chassis will use a modified version of the impressive 6.5-litre naturally aspirated Cosworth V12 engine originally built for the Valkyrie road car, which in standard form revs to 11,000rpm and develops over 100 bh. The power unit is further refined to incorporate the critical performance balance requirements of the Hypercar class and has been developed to withstand the rigors of the top level of long-distance competition. As with the Valkyrie AMR Pro track car, the battery-electric hybrid system featured on the road-spec Valkyrie is absent from the race car.
Development of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH is already well advanced, with recent on-track evaluation of integrated systems having taken place at Aston Martin’s Silverstone test facility and the Portimao circuit in Portugal.
Heart of Racing also recently established a UK team headquarters for its WEC program close to where the race cars are built in partnership with Silverstone-based Aston Martin Performance Technologies, which oversees design and development of Valkyrie AMR-LMH .
Aston Martin with Heart of Racing is also planning an IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar program for the Valkyrie AMR-LMH to run the GTP class of the US endurance series. This will be sold out of Phoenix HQ’s Heart of Racing in North America.
“With this new direction of the WEC ruleset we had to advance our plans to run multiple cars in the WEC Hypercar class. This has obviously condensed our build process, but we are very excited at the prospect of having two cars in the field. We will be proud to be a part of this category, which has seen a meteoric rise in the last two years and offers amazing matches and fan interaction. The challenge ahead of us is huge and we look forward to the journey.” said Heart of Racing Team Principal Ian James.
Aston Martin’s entry into the Hypercar category ensures that the British super luxury sports car manufacturer will have a presence in all aspects of endurance racing from the gentleman to the pinnacle of the sport. Indeed, from 2025, Aston Martin will be the only manufacturer competing in all levels of sports car and GT racing (from Hypercar to GT4) and FIA Formula 1® World Championship.
In total, more than 240 drivers have raced Aston Martins at Le Mans over the past 95 years in 27 different chassis and engine combinations, in almost every era. No other venue has given Aston Martin as much success or proven more consistently that our DNA is forged from the very essence of competition.
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