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Aston Martin confirms plans for Hypercar endurance return

Aston Martin has confirmed that it will be fielding two entries in the Hypercar class of next year's FIA World Endurance Championship, including the Le Mans 24 Hour race.

It will be fielding the new Valkyrie LMH car in conjunction with Heart of Racing, which has entered an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 car in this year's race taking place this weekend at the iconic Sarthe circuit in northern France.

A new regulation for 2025 required that all manufacturers taking part in the Hypercar class such as Toyota, Ferrari, Peugeot, BMW and Alpine must run at least two cars.

The new Valkyrie Hypercar will use a modified version of the Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally-aspirated V12 engine originally produced for the Valkyrie road car, which in standard form revs to 11,000rpm and develops over 1000bhp.

The power unit is being enhanced further to incorporate the critical Balance of Performance requirements of the Hypercar class and has been further developed to withstand the rigours of top-level long-distance competition.

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However, as with the Valkyrie AMR Pro track-car, the battery-electric hybrid system that features on the road-specification Valkyrie will not be present on the new race car.

Aston Martin last competed in the top class at Le Mans in 2011 with two entries for its AMR-One model, and the marque's head of endurance motorsport Adam Carter is delighted to see it back in the running.

“We first raced at Le Mans more than 95 years ago, something no other road-going hypercar manufacturer can say,” Carter said. “We are very proud of our association with this wonderful event.

"With that in mind 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.

“In 2025, with our works team the Heart of Racing, we intend to put two Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH hypercars on the grid, to compete alongside a fantastic array of the world’s best sportscar manufacturers,

"We are doing all we can to ensure that we can fight at the front of that space," Carter continued.

"The Valkyrie AMR-LMH programme 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.”

The teams' plans remain subject to its entry being accepted by Le Mans event organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest [ACO] and the sport’s governing body the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile [FIA].

It means that from 2025 Aston Martin will be the only manufacturer competing at all levels of sportscar and GT racing (from Hypercar to GT4) and F1.

Heart of Racing also intends to race a Valkyrie in future seasons of the IMSA sportcar championship in the US now that the technical regulations between the two championships have aligned.

"Aston Martin and its works partner Heart of Racing are delighted to support this change in the regulations, in the interests of working together to improve the sporting environment for the benefit of all," said a team statement.

"Aston Martin will continue to work closely with both organisations moving forward and through the duration of the Valkyrie AMR-LMH programme.

Heart of Racing also recently established a UK team headquarters for its WEC programme, near where the racing cars are being constructed in co-operation with Aston Martin Performance Technologies at Silverstone.

“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," commented Heart of Racing team principal 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," he insisted. "We will be proud to be a part of this class, which has seen a meteoric rise in the past couple of years..

"The challenge ahead is immense, and we are looking forward to the journey.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.