Aston Martin is all set to return to the pinnacle of endurance racing. The British carmaker has confirmed it will enter a race-spec prototype of the Valkyrie in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the US-based IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2025. With this, Aston Martin aims to renew its bid for overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time since 2011. From 2025, it will also become the only manufacturer to compete at all levels of sportscar and GT racing (from Hypercar to GT4) and the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
With the backing of its championship-winning endurance racing partner, Heart of Racing (HoR), Aston Martin will enter at least one Valkyrie racecar in the top ‘Hypercar’ class of the WEC and IMSA Championship. The prototype Valkyrie, therefore, will participate in three of sportscar racing’s most prestigious events – Le Mans, the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro was originally designed and developed to meet the LMH hypercar regulations. Now though, Aston Martin Performance Technologies has started developing a competition prototype version of the Valkyrie AMR Pro for racing within a pre-defined aerodynamic and power performance window that gives it parity with its direct competition in WEC. It will then be homologated for the WEC Hypercar and IMSA GTP classes ahead of the 2025 season.
The race-optimised carbon fibre chassis Valkyrie will use a modified version of Cosworth’s 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine, which in its standard form revs to 11,000rpm and develops over 1,000bhp. The power unit will be enhanced further to incorporate the critical ‘Balance of Performance’ requirements of the hypercar class and to withstand the rigours of top-level endurance racing.