Tincknell Confident Aston Martin Will Be Closer On Race Pace

Harry Tincknell is confident that Heart of Racing Team will be closer to its Hypercar competitors on race pace in Friday’s FIA World Endurance Championship season-opener in Qatar than it was on the Valkyrie’s first appearance in qualifying.

The British manufacturer’s pair of brand-new Aston Martin Valkyries had originally qualified 15th and 17th for the car’s race debut, but Marco Sorensen losing his laps for speeding in the pit lane leaves the two cars 16th and 18th on the grid.

Tincknell was 3.179 seconds off the pace in No. 007 car he shares with Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn during the opening segment of qualifying.

But, looking ahead to the Qatar 1812km, he is expecting a much more competitive showing for the two cars relative to the Hypercar opposition.

“I think honestly it has been better than expected,” Tincknell told Sportscar365. “Our race pace looks much closer than our qualifying pace.

“Up this point we haven’t been focusing on qualifying that much, so we have some optimization to do there; particularly on our side we didn’t get the tires prepped quick enough to get the time in, we were a bit rushed and we missed the peak of the tire.

“Ultimately, in the race running, at times we have run within a second of the pace. So I am hoping we can be super-reliable, super-consistent, and if we can do that over ten hours, we can make up some spots, for sure.”

Tincknell didn’t dismiss the prospect of scoring points on the car’s debut, but stated that making the checkered flag of the ten-hour race is the primary goal.

“If we can be consistent and reliable and execute in the pit stops, I know how many incidents and things can happen, so sneaking into the top ten would be an incredible result,” he said. “But just to finish with both cars would be great.

“It’s still super-early days in the program, so we’re only going to improve with every kilometer of running.”

The 33-year-old further emphasized how much progress other manufacturers had made with getting the tires in the correct operating window in qualifying, admitting that this is an aspect Aston Martin still needs to work on.

“When we look at our competitors, they made giant steps from year one to year two, and we’re still in year zero here,” said Tincknell.

“So I feel like once we get on top of qualifying pace and tire warm-up a bit, certainly by the time we get to Le Mans we should be more competitive in all aspects.”

Tincknell believes it remains too early to say which types of corner or conditions favor the Valkyrie, but is expecting further answers as Heart of Racing embarks on a double program that also includes the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

“When we have tested, we have done big evolutions of the car in every single test,” he said. “Our last test was here in December, and we have improved quite a bit since then.

“I think it’s early to say, but we are looking forward to finding out, and having a double program with IMSA and WEC, there are very different circuits, so we’ll find that out a bit quicker than if we were just doing WEC.

“But this track is very smooth and very high-speed, so we are getting a feel of what we need to get out of the car in that area.”