James “Very Happy” With Valkyrie Prologue Showing

Heart of Racing Team boss Ian James was “very happy” with the progress made by the pair of debuting Aston Martin Valkyries during the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue in Qatar, where the two cars combined completed over 500 laps.

The highly anticipated, V12-powered Hypercar made its first official outing in a WEC session across the two days of pre-season testing at the Lusail International Circuit, the site of next week’s Qatar 1812km season opener.

The two cars combined to complete 549 laps during the Prologue, with Harry Tincknell recording the car’s fastest time by posting a 1:41.089 aboard the No. 007 machine he shares with Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn.

The No. 007 car was involved in the two most notable incidents for Aston Martin across an otherwise clean Prologue, with a pair of spins in the gravel requiring recovery.

“Super happy [with] the amount of laps we’ve achieved and the mileage we’ve done here,” Heart of Racing team principal James told Sportscar365.

“Obviously, we’re still in our learning phase. A couple of little spins, exploring the limits and some of the system settings, but very happy with the progress.

“Just day by day right now with the program so all the drivers are happy in the car and we’re just gradually finding a little bit of performance here and there.”

James added that the team encountered “little things here and there” throughout the the two days two days of running, but added that previous testing “proved to be valuable and indicative of what we’ve done here.”

Despite that, James held a realistic view heading into the car’s debut race weekend, maintaining Aston Martin ‘has a long way to go’ in WEC’s competitive Hypercar field.

“Obviously we did the Bahrain tire test with everybody here, but when you’re out here in anger, the first race of the year and doing the prologue, you learn a lot,” said James.

“You see the characteristics of some of the other cars and you can watch what they’re doing a little bit closer.

“We know we’ve got a long way to go and we’re going to be sensible about that and do it in in our own time.

“But just super proud to have the car out there and it’s going around and everybody seems to to enjoy it being here, so that’s positive.

“I think at this stage of the program we should be satisfied with where we’re at right now but to get to the end of the race with both cars that would be a dream.

“So that’s still 20 hours to go to make that happen but it’s run reliably and the team are really operating really well for the first event.”

James’ Heart of Racing crew received praise from Aston Martin’s Head of Endurance Motorsport Adam Carter, who added that the brand was able to ‘continue the momentum’ from its previous testing program.

“Really pleased to be here,” said Carter.

“It’s taken a lot of effort from everybody involved. The Heart of Racing Team have done a fantastic job to get here well prepared.

“To see the momentum we’ve built during testing to continue here with logging a real high count of laps, car running faultlessly, team coming together, starting to work together as a race team gelling and starting to develop and the car on track performance.

“[We are] really looking forward to starting to compete next weekend.”