Talbot Switches to Volante Rosso for Title Defense

Liam Talbot will defend his GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS title with Aston Martin squad Volante Rosso Motorsport alongside Declan Fraser.

Bronze-ranked Talbot makes the switch from Arise Racing GT, where he won last year’s championship alongside Chaz Mostert in a Ferrari 296 GT3.

With Mostert having signalled his intentions to step away from the series this year, Talbot is now targeting his third successive title with three different manufacturers, having first won the 2023 crown in a Melbourne Performance Centre-run Audi.

He will share Volante’s previous-gen Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with Fraser, who raced a Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG last year.

“Volante Rosso Motorsport is an impressive outfit, I’m definitely looking forward to joining the team and getting some amazing results,” said Talbot.

“I have experience running the GTE version of the Vantage AMR GT3 [in the final round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship at Bahrain with D’station Racing] and I have a lot of experience driving an Aston Martin in the Nürburgring 24, so it’s exciting to return home to a British marque.

“I look forward to getting some great results for Volante Rosso, which is a bit of an underdog in the GT scene and it will be nice to press the team forward to build it into a force to be reckoned with.

“I’m excited to potentially extend the legacy from two manufacturers and two titles to three manufacturers and titles in as many years.”

Volante Rosso experienced a turbulent first GTWC Australia season as an Aston Martin partner team, withdrawing from the car’s debut weekend at Queensland Raceway after a qualifying accident and also missing the Bathurst season finale.

The team returned to action in the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour in February, finishing 13th overall and third in the Silver Cup class with Jamie Day, Jaylyn Robotham and Mateo Villagomez sharing driving duties aboard the No. 14 car.

“Liam is an amazing driver and a successive champion in GT World Challenge Australia,” said team director Chris Papadopoulos.

“We can’t wait to race with him this season. We identified Liam as part of an ideal driver pairing a long time ago so to pull the deal together is immensely satisfying.

“I’ve raced against Liam for many years and he’s always been a tough one to beat, so racing with him is both an honor and an incredible opportunity and we’re thrilled that he’s chosen Volante Rosso and Aston Martin to defend last year’s title.

“We’re really happy with the performance of our Aston Martin Vantage GT3 after getting to know the car and its specific optimizations.

“We showed some of that speed at the Bathurst 12 Hour and will be taking that pace and performance into the season as we aim to get back on the top step of the GT World Challenge podium this year.”