The brand new Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP racer is simply the model’s third try at constructing a top-flight endurance racing sports activities automobile since 1989. Final weekend marked the automobile’s first check classes at Daytona Worldwide Raceway with factory-supported Coronary heart Of Racing’s one-car entry and, whereas it was a preliminary occasion for a model new automobile and it sounded implausible, it didn’t look notably fast. It isn’t wanting fairly as dire because the a lot maligned Aston AMR-One effort of 2011, nevertheless it’s not a lot better, both.
If you happen to can, recall again 13 years to the AMR-One and its extraordinarily short-lived try at racing within the LMP1 class. Aston Martin Racing and Prodrive developed a model new high-beltline low-weight open cockpit LMP1 effort to race towards Audi and Peugeot within the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (which might change into the present World Endurance Championship.) The Aston’s turbocharged straight six was no match for the French and German diesels, nevertheless. After a dismal first outing on the 6 Hours of Le Castellet, the AMR-One certified twenty second and twenty fifth for the 2011 Le Mans 24, 4 seconds per lap slower than the main LMP2, and 20 seconds per lap slower than the polesitting Audi R18 TDI. After each AMR-One chassis failed out of Le Mans within the first hour, the trouble was utterly scrapped and the vehicles had been bought off to be changed into the notorious Deltawing.
Aston Martin’s final effort at constructing a prototype is perhaps a preview of the brand new Valkyrie’s ignominious racing debut subsequent January at the 24 Hours of Daytona. Keep in mind that Aston initially dedicated to the Le Mans Hypercar class again in 2019 with plans to enter two manufacturing unit Valkyrie and two additional privateer entries for the 2021 season. The undertaking was then cancelled when Lawrence Stroll pushed Aston to purchase into Components One as a substitute. So whereas Aston Martin has been waffling about bringing the street-based Hypercar to the race monitor, the competitors from Porsche, Cadillac, BMW, Acura, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Toyota, and Peugeot have been on monitor for 2 seasons price of wheel-to-wheel competitors.
Throughout 4 classes of pre-season testing at Daytona over the weekend the brand new Aston Martin is proving itself to be critically behind the eight ball. With a single automobile within the GTP class, Coronary heart Of Racing drivers Ross Gunn, Alex Riberas, and Roman De Angelis discovered themselves driving the slowest automobile within the class. The automobile’s quickest lap, a 1:37.169, was run within the fourth session of the day. That point put the workforce a couple of second and a half per lap behind the quickest Meyer Shank Racing Acuras, and simply a few tenths faster than the Crowdstrike Racing LMP2 class leaders.
In the course of the two days of testing the Aston Martin workforce managed to place up simply 258 laps of testing. That falls in need of the 487 laps that the Penske Porsche quantity 6 managed. It was among the many lowest laps turned by any of the vehicles within the check.
As a long-time endurance racing fanatic, I clearly perceive that that is the automobile’s first official check, and it’s totally doable that the Valkyrie will turn into a powerful and aggressive racer. It’s price conserving in thoughts that this automobile is the one one on the GTP grid and not using a hybrid powertrain, the one one to be primarily based on a avenue automobile as a substitute of a bespoke prototype chassis, and alongside the Cadillacs a uncommon non-turbocharged engine. I’m pretty assured this automobile is not going to be aggressive in its first outing, or maybe even its first season.
This new automobile does sound actually good, although, and extra race vehicles ought to have 6.5-liter naturally-aspirated V12s. I simply hope Aston doesn’t quit on this automobile after one poor exhibiting prefer it did the AMR-One. Perhaps Adrian Newey can spend a little bit of the low season growing the automobile’s evolution aero package deal for the 2026 season.
