Aston Martin will be competing in the WEC in 2025 with two of its new hypercars. The British announced their participation with two LMH prototypes this Friday before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This was preceded by a requirement from the organizer ACO that all manufacturers in the top class of the World Endurance Championship must use two vehicles. This also applies to Lamborghini, Cadillac and Isotta Fraschini, who each only entered one permanent car this year. The starting field is to grow from the current 37 to 40 entries.
Aston Martin is planning a major hypercar attack from 2025: In addition to the two cars in the WEC, the luxury car manufacturer is also using its hypercar in the US sports car championship (IMSA). This makes Aston Martin the first brand in the world to bring an LMH car developed according to the WEC regulations to the start in the States. Up until now, only LMDh cars (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) from Porsche, BMW and Co. have driven in the IMSA, while Ferrari, Toyota and Peugeot have only been involved in the WEC.
Aston Martin Hypercar: Homologation in autumn
The Heart of Racing team oversees Aston Martin’s efforts in both WEC and IMSA. “The Valkyrie AMR-LMH program is on schedule, with a significant amount of development taking place behind the scenes before the car makes its track debut later this summer,” says Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s Endurance Chief. “We then expect an intensive period of testing to put miles on the car and learn everything we can before the planned homologation in the autumn.”
As the ACO announced at its press conference on Friday in the Marie Marvignt stadium near the race track, the homologation cycle for the current WEC hypercars has been extended by two years, up to and including 2029. As part of this extension, the manufacturers have been granted two additional ‘jokers’ to technically develop their racing cars within the framework of the regulations.
Aston Martin abandons hybrid drive
The first track tests with the Aston racing car have already taken place in Silverstone and Portimao. The Aston Martin Valkyrie super sports car serves as the basis for the hypercar. The car, once used by The racing car developed by Adrian Newey has been adapted accordingly. The engine concept, however, remains the same: a V12 engine with a displacement of 6.5 liters from Cosworth – but unlike manufacturers such as Toyota, Ferrari or Peugeot, without a hybrid drive. In series production, the Valkyrie delivers over 1,000 hp – in the WEC, the hypercars are limited to an output of around 680 hp (500 kW).
Ian James, Team Principal of Heart of Racing: “With the new direction of the WEC regulations, we have had to bring forward our plans to run multiple cars in the WEC Hypercar class. This has obviously shortened our build-up process, but we are very excited about the prospect of having two cars in the field.”
Aston Martin: WEC entry planned for 2020
Aston Martin had originally planned to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a hybrid-less Valkyrie hypercar as early as 2020. The British company, under former CEO Andy Palmer, had already presented a corresponding concept to the world public in 2018. In February 2020, Aston Martin pulled the plug prematurely on the grounds that there had initially been no talk of global sports car convergence (Le Mans hypercars and LMDh cars together). Financial difficulties are also said to have been an issue.
Aston Martin did not abandon the Hypercar racing project at the time, but officially spoke of a “postponement”. After a long period of silence about the plans, it is now to be implemented five years later than originally planned. As things stand, Aston Martin would be the only manufacturer in the world of hypercars to develop its racing car based on a real road model. The hypercars from BMW or Toyota as well as the LMDh cars from BMW or Porsche are pure prototypes with no real connection to series production.
This time, Aston Martin’s project is to be put into action – the British will be fighting for overall victory in the top class of Le Mans for the first time since 2011. Aston Martin celebrated its only triumph to date in 1959 with the DBR1 and the driver duo Carroll Shelby/Roy Salvadori.