Yahoo Finance Aston Martin Will Race the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Valkyrie Hypercars in 2025
The starting grid at the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans is notably light on entrants of British manufacturers, with only two Aston Martin Vantage GT3 race cars hitting the roughly 8.5-mile track. That's set to change, though, as the Aston's presence at the storied French endurance race is set to grow with serious muscle.
Aston Martin announced Friday that its AMR-LMH hypercars are confirmed to join the race in 2025. Initially debuted in 2019, Aston plans to enter a pair of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH hypercars in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, so long as the homologated model is accepted by the FIA. This decision comes after a rule change by Le Mans' organizers, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, and the FIA stating that each participating manufacturer must enter at least two cars in the Hypercar class starting next year.
Partnering with Heart of Racing, the pair is excited to get the Valkyrie AMR-LMH cars on track, particularly as it starts on-track evaluations of the newly developed carbon-fiber chassis at Aston Martin’s Silverstone testing facility and the Portimao circuit in Portugal. At its core, the Valkyrie AMR-LMH is a long-wheelbase version of the Valkyrie road car, with a non-hybridized version of the 1000-hp, 11,000-rpm revving, Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V-12 engine.
In the same vein, Aston says its engineering team is working to adhere to the Hypercar class' critical Balance of Performance requirements. These requirements are implemented by the FIA to level the grid through a series of unified parameters (often aerodynamics and powertrain-focused) for the Hypercar class. As Aston homologates its endurance racing setup, the team will be focused on adhering to these requirements to be eventually accepted by the FIA.
"...It’s very clear that we are committed to WEC’s hypercar concept and bringing our famous Wings back to the very forefront of international sportscar racing, including at the 24 Hours of Le Mans," said Aston Martin's Head of Endurance Motorsport Adam Carter. "The Valkyrie AMR-LMH program is on schedule with a significant amount of development taking place behind the scenes and ahead of the car’s track debut later this summer. We then anticipate an intensive period of testing to put miles on the car and learn all we can ahead of its planned homologation in the autumn."
While Heart of Racing is formally based in the United Kingdom, near Silverstone Circuit, Aston Martin will also be competing in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Program in the endurance series' GTP class. The headquarters for this North American racing venture will be in Phoenix, Arizona.
"With this new direction of the WEC ruleset we have had to bring forward our plans to run multiple cars in the WEC Hypercar class," said Heart of Racing Team Principle Ian James. "This has obviously condensed our build-up process, but we are very excited about the prospect of having two cars in the field."
With its eventual entry into the Hypercar class, Aston Martin claims it will be the only manufacturer competing at all levels of sportscar and GT racing as well as Formula 1. Notably, Aston is no stranger to racing at Le Mans, as this announcement marks the manufacturer's 95th anniversary of first competing at the storied French track. Since 1929, Aston has entered 27 different chassis, 240 drivers, and dozens of engine configurations at Le Mans, and it aims to take the crown come 2025.
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