LUSAIL, QATAR: Next weekend, British ultra-luxury performance brand Aston Martin will give the Valkyrie hypercar its debut in the opening round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the Qatar 1812km at Lusail International Circuit.
The first ‘Le Mans Hypercar’ (LMH) to be produced by Aston Martin, Valkyrie is the only car in the WEC’s premier category derived from a road-legal hypercar.
Its global debut, masterminded by the works Aston Martin THOR team in Qatar, begins an historic season for the British challenger, which will be the only LMH to compete in both the FIA WEC and in North America’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Directed by Aston Martin Performance Technologies and The Heart of Racing, and bred from the Valkyrie production model, the competition version blends a race-optimised carbon fibre chassis with a modified 6.5-litre, Cosworth-developed, V12 naturally aspirated engine that revs to 11,000rpm and produces over 1000bhp in standard form, but adheres to a strict 500kw (680bhp) power limit as per hypercar regulations.
Valkyrie positions Aston Martin – present in the FIA WEC every year since the series’ inception in 2012, and one of its most successful manufacturers with 11 championship titles – in the top class of world championship sportscar racing for the first time since the AMR1 Group C challenger of 1989.
It also provides the opportunity to challenge for a first victory at the world’s greatest endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, since Carroll Shelby (USA) and Roy Salvadori (GBR) triumphed in the Aston Martin DBR1 in 1959.
The driver roster for the two-car programme features a blend of experience and youth within the Aston Martin works driver ranks.
The #007 Valkyrie comprises an all-British line-up as Harry Tincknell, the 2016 European Le Mans Series (ELMS) overall champion and 2020 Le Mans LMGT3 winner, is joined by rising star Tom Gamble, ELMS LMP3 title-winner in 2020, for the full, eight-race, season.
Ross Gunn, a race-winner in IMSA’s GTD and GTD Pro categories in each of the past four seasons, joins the duo for the longer-distance races, including the Qatar 1812km and Le Mans.
Marco Sørensen (DEN), three times an FIA WEC title-winner in GT classes, is joined in the sister #009 Valkyrie by long-time THOR racer Alex Riberas (ESP); a GTD Pro winner in IMSA in each of the past three seasons as well as part of the team’s FIA WEC LMGT3-winning line-up at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) last year.
Roman De Angelis, the 2022 IMSA GTD Champion, strengthens the line-up for the longer-distance races, including the Qatar 1812km next weekend and Le Mans.
