Aston Martin Not Ruling Out Valkyrie Customer Cars

Aston Martin is open to the idea of supplying its newly resurrected Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar to customer teams once it has properly established its factory effort with partner team The Heart of Racing.

Head of Endurance Motorsport Adam Carter told Sportscar365 that while Aston Martin’s initial focus lies with the dual FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2025, it would be open to supplying the Valkyrie to other teams “if the opportunities and circumstances are right for everybody.”

Currently, Porsche is the only top-class manufacturer in the WEC and WeatherTech Championship that has set up a customer racing program.

Its 963, which in contrast to the Valkyrie is built to LMDh regulations, is raced by Hertz Team JOTA in WEC and JDC-Miller Motorsports in the WeatherTech Championship, while Proton Competition competes in both.

No LMH manufacturer currently offers cars to customers, with Ferrari stating earlier this year that the prospect of selling its LMH car to customers was ‘more complex’ than anticipated.

A key difference between the 499P and the Valkyrie is the lack of a hybrid system on Aston Martin’s car, which is based off of the track-only AMR Pro platform.

Carter said that while Aston Martin would be open to the idea of selling the Valkyrie to customers, it would be important it not to distract from its main objectives with Heart of Racing.

“Absolutely today our focus is [on] Aston Martin and The Heart of Racing,” said Carter.

“You’ve got to respect the competition out there and the task we have ahead of us between now and Daytona 2025. Our view is that we focus on that and we have the opportunity to do additional cars within that.

“My actual view is if somebody comes to us asking about customer cars, it will be a huge compliment to the job we’ve done.

“Customer cars will be [a] very welcome [part] of the discussion and how we integrate that with the package. What we don’t want to do is dilute the focus of Aston Martin with The Heart of Racing going to WEC, IMSA and Le Mans.

“If the opportunities and the circumstances are right for everybody, then it’s the right thing to do. We’ve stated [now] one car in each [series]. If we can go to multiple cars in each, then we will as the circumstances and the situation allow.

“I can’t underestimate how important it has to be for all of the circumstances to be correct for everybody for us to do a customer car.”

Aston Martin: Six-Chassis Build for 2025 Program

Carter indicated that Aston Martin will be constructing six chassis to go towards the dual WEC/WeatherTech Championship program in 2025, with powertrain and aero development already having been in progress “for several months” prior to last week’s announcement.

“Getting through the aero development and onto the car and the engine development to get track testing ahead of the homologation schedule is the absolute key milestone,” he said. “The homologation date which is regulated is the anchor point.

“The conversion work, should we say, the engineering work to do the bodywork engineering for the quick-change front, split lines, etc. The specifics of packaging the electronics for race serviceability, that’s race car design.

“Whereas obviously every race car hits the track and then you evolve and develop, that’s part of the process. Getting the car on track with the correct power unit specification, with the correct driveshaft and torque controller, with the correct aero package.”

Electronics packaging on the car is a particular challenge according to Carter, pointing to the cockpit layout of the AMR Pro that will serve as the basis for the race car.

“When the car was converted to the track car it became a two-seater car, which meant an awful lot of repackaging of the electronics and things out of the way,” he explained.

“Everybody [who has] seen a normal hypercar will see all the electronics next to the driver, whereas we’ve had to package that all out of sight and all in the panels and things in the car. So we’ll be reverting on it just to make it a race car in terms of that serviceability.

“It’s the bodywork engineering, so the aero development work and then converting that into a real car that we can take to the track.

“You have to have not only the in-garage race serviceability, you’ve also got to think about actually racing GT cars, other LMH cars which do love to get closer than they should to one another. So it’s just about making a robust race car.”