More than 65 years after Aston Martin took outright victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the marque will return to the prestigious endurance race with the prototype Valkyrie racecar.
In 2025, Aston Martin is set to be the only manufacturer present in all forms of global endurance racing and Formula One, with the Valkyrie leading Aston Martin's hypercar campaign in the FIA World Endurance Championship – including the 24 Hours of Le Mans – and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The prototype Valkyrie is also set to become the first hypercar inspired by a road car to simultaneously compete in both of endurance racing's most prestigious series.
Therefore, at least one prototype Valkyrie will compete for overall victory in three of the greatest endurance races in motorsport: the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Aston Martin's return to the top class of endurance racing comes 66 years after Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby won the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans outright in the Aston Martin DBR1.
Headquartered in the AMR Technology Campus with AMF1 Team, Aston Martin Performance Technologies has begun the task of developing a competition prototype version of Valkyrie. AMPT previously developed the Valkyrie AMR Pro and has brought Formula One technology to the Valhalla road car.
The prototype version of Valkyrie will give it parity with its direct competition in WEC, before it will be homologated for the WEC Hypercar and IMSA GTP classes.
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.
"We have been present at Le Mans since the earliest days, and through those glorious endeavours we succeeded in winning Le Mans in 1959 and our 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."
The Valkyrie racecar will be entered with the support and backing of Aston Martin's championship-winning endurance racing partner Heart of Racing. Heart of Racing was founded in 2014 by American businessman and philanthropist Gabe Newell to raise money for the Seattle Children's Cardiology Research Fund and other worthy causes.
The US-based Heart of Racing Team has partnered with Aston Martin since its inception in 2020 and competed with the ultra-successful Vantage GT3 in IMSA's two GTD classes – winning the title in 2022.
"In addition to our presence in the FIA Formula One World Championship, Aston Martin's return to the pinnacle of endurance racing will allow us to build a deeper connection with our customers and community, many of whom found their passion for the brand through our past success at Le Mans," added Lawrence Stroll.
"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 programmes, 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 programme, and I look forward to working with him and the team as we aim for success in the greatest endurance race of them all."
The race-optimised carbon-fibre-chassis Valkyrie will use a modified version of the 6.5-litre naturally-aspirated V12 Cosworth-built engine that, in roadgoing form, revs to 11,000rpm and develops more than 1,000bhp. The power unit will be enhanced and modified to incorporate the Hypercar class's Balance of Performance requirements. As with the Valkyrie AMR Pro track car, the battery-electric hybrid system is absent from the racecar.
Past. Present. Future.
A return to the top class of endurance racing.
Le Mans, Daytona, Sebring.
Valkyrie continues our racing legacy in 2025.
Furthermore, Aston Martin has today announced a commitment to building and preparing all-new GT3 and GT4 cars based on the Vantage platform. The new GT challenger is expected to compete in WEC, IMSA, and the GT World Challenge Series among other championships and series.
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport, said: "Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Aston Martin in endurance racing. As a manufacturer, Aston Martin has a consistent record of success at world championship level and, through the efforts of the Heart of Racing, also now in IMSA.
"Valkyrie takes us back into the top tier of sportscar racing and, together with our partners we are absolutely confident that we can deliver a race car with the potential and the performance capabilities to fight alongside the benchmark machinery in the class. To be able to do this in cooperation with a proven championship-winning operation such as Heart of Racing ensures we have all we need to race from a competitive platform.
"It’s a fascinating programme, given that this is the only hypercar in the class with direct synergies to its road car counterpart, but the Valkyrie concept was always intended to break through boundaries, and now we have the opportunity to show what it can do on a track.
"By also confirming Aston Martin's commitment to a new GT3 and GT4 challenger, we signal our intent to compete for victory at all levels of sportscar racing now and well into the future."
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