Aston Martin have revealed the liveries the Valkyrie AMR-LMH will race with in the IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship, in addition to the full driver lineups for both series.
The WEC line up will comprise of the already-announced Harry Tincknell and Alex Riberas, with rising British star Tom Gamble joining Tincknell in the #007. Long-time Aston Martin factory driver Marco Sorensen will partner Riberas in the #009 car.
Over in IMSA, the car will be driven by existing Heart of Racing drivers Ross Gunn and Roman de Angelis.
Gunn and de Angelis will join the WEC team for the longer races in the world championship, including at the season opener in Qatar and at Le Mans in June. Gunn will partner Tincknell and Gamble to create an all-British line up, while de Angelis will co-drive the #009 with Riberas and Sørensen.
The Valkyrie AMR-LMH will race with a British racing green livery in the world championship, and a blue Heart of Racing-derived livery in the US-based IMSA championship. As previously announced, Heart of Racing will run both programmes concurrently, with full factory works support from Aston Martin.
From top left: Alex Riberas, Marco Sorensen, Roman de Angelis, Ross Gunn, Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell (not pictured) will race the Valkyrie in IMSA and WEC. Images: Aston Martin
15,000km covered in testing
Aston Martin and The Heart of Racing have covered over 15,000km in testing with the Valkyrie AMR-LMH, across a test programme in Europe, the Middle East, and United States.
To put this into context, Ferrari completed over 16,000km in testing for the 499P in 2022, before its debut in 2023.
Tracks Aston Martin have tested at include Silverstone and Donington in the UK, where testing began in July 2024, plus Vallelunga and Jerez in continental Europe.
The European programme then switched to testing in the Middle East, at Bahrain and Qatar. The US test programme, meanwhile, put the car through its paces at Road Atlanta, Sebring, and Daytona.
“You can always be further up the road, but I'm happy with how the programme has progressed and with the reliability we have shown,” says Ian James, team principal of The Heart of Racing.
“The whole team, from design to AMPT, from the manufacturing element to the race team, I couldn't be happier in terms with how everything is integrated.”
From road to race car
The Valkyrie famously started life as the ultimate road car. It then morphed into the AMR Pro track day car, and now into the Valkyrie AMR-LMH.
It retains the iconic V12 engine from the road car, although it has been developed to run leaner, in order to fit the LMH and Hypercar regulations.
Phil Oakley
This means the power is limited to 680bhp, or 500kW, down from over 1000bhp in the road car.
The two big focuses for the V12 have been fuel efficiency and reliability, Aston says.
“Running lean to reduce the amount of fuel you are carrying to deliver the required stint energy is important,” said Adam Carter, Aston Martin's head of endurance motorsport.
“We operate the engine slower than it's capable of because we require less power. The lower power limit within the regulations creates an opportunity for us to revisit the torque curve and reduce frictional losses by reducing engine speed to increase fuel efficiency.”
Regarding aerodynamics, the original Valkyrie aero has been evolved to meet the LMH regulations, with a solid base from the road car. In fact, Adrian Newey, one of the most successful racing car designers ever, was partially responsible for the original car's design, alongside Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichmann.
“It would be almost unimaginable for Adrian, one of the greatest racing car designers in history, to design a car and not think about it going racing at some point,” said Carter.
The car's suspension features double wishbones front and rear, with pushrod actuated torsion bar springs with adjustable side and central dampers. As with every Hypercar or GTP, the Valkyrie runs on 189-inch Michelin Pilot Sport tyres.
'The absolute performance is limited by the regulations, irrespective of development,' Carter explained.
'There’s a minimum weight, a power limitation through driveshaft torque control and an aerodynamic performance window. Every competitors’ car model gets measured in a full-size wind tunnel. So, it's about optimising the characteristics of the Valkyrie within the fundamental performance contributors.'
A lineup containing youth and experience
With six drivers across Aston's IMSA and WEC programmes, they've got a lot of experience in sportscars and endurance racing to tap into, plus youth.
23-year-old Tom Gamble is a former factory driver for McLaren. He won the Autosport British Racing Drivers Club award in 2018, which gained him an F1 test with the British team.
He's raced twice at Le Mans, in 2021 with GR Racing, finishing 14th in the GTE-Am class, and 2023, alongside Salih Yoluc and Dries Vanthoor for Racing Team Turkey. Unfortunately, the latter effort only managed 87 laps, retiring due to a suspension issue. Gold-rated Gamble also won the 2020 LMP3 championship in the European Le Mans Series, racing for United Autosports.
His contact with The Heart of Racing, and therefore Aston Martin, comes from racing for THOR in IMSA's endurance races at Daytona, Sebring and Road Atlanta in 2022.
'I rate him very highly as a natural talent and he deserves a chance in the spotlight at the highest level of sports car racing,' says James.
The other driver announced today in Aston's WEC programme needs no introduction to Aston Martin fans. Sørensen is the manufacturer's most successful active driver, having won the WEC GTE championship three times, twice in 2016 and 2019-20 in GTE Pro, and once in 2022 in GTE-Am. He also won Le Mans in GTE-Am in the same year.
'He's among the most experienced and successful drivers to ever race for Aston Martin and he’s waited a long time for his chance at the top class,' says James.
'Having worked with him, having seen his ability and how cool he is under pressure, I think he's a perfect fit for this programme.'
The Valkyrie will make its global racing debut at the 1812km Qatar, the season-opening race of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, on Friday 28th February 2025. It will make its IMSA debut a few weeks later, at the 12 Hours of Sebring, on Saturday 15th March.
Download The Racing Line, your personalised motorsport calendar, on iOS today to get up to date session times and customisable notifications for over 100 different series, including single seaters, sportscars, rally, bikes, and much more.