- the aston martin valkyrie will participate in the world endurance championship starting with next year's 2020–2021 racing season.
- the company announced this plan at le mans on the day before the 2019 24-hour event.
- in announcing the plan, aston martin ceo andy palmer asked the intriguing question, "what could be more evocative than the wail of an aston martin v-12 leading the charge into the night on the mulsanne straight?"
aston martin has boasted that the forthcoming valkyrie is going to be quicker than most true competition machinery. now it seems we will have the chance to see if that holds true on some of the world's best-known racetracks. the automaker has confirmed that it will be entering at least two works cars in the new hypercar category of the sports-car fia world endurance championship in the 2020–2021 season—meaning the brand will be returning to the top flight at the 24 hours of le mans next year.
the news, made just ahead of this year's running of the classic french endurance race, came as no great surprise; we've been hearing rumors about a racing valkyrie for some time. aston has a long history at le mans, having first raced there as long ago as 1921, and scoring a one-two win there in 1959, when the dbr1 beat the ferrari 250gt by an almost unprecedented 20-lap margin. the british brand has never repeated the feat but has achieved several gt-class victories with both the db9 and the vantage, most recently winning the gte pro class in 2017.
the official release is short on details beyond acknowledging the existence of the program, and the welcome confirmation that the race car will continue to use the high-revving naturally aspirated v-12 that cosworth has developed for the road-legal valkyrie. we don't have final specifications for the wider race series yet. the original proposal from the fia issued last year specified a split-hybrid system with an internal-combustion engine turning the rear axle and electrical assistance at the front. after limited interest from automakers, the fia said in march that roadgoing hypercars would also be eligible for the series; although it's a hybrid, the valkyrie uses a blended system with electrical and internal-combustion power, both routed through the rear axle.
the next big question is, which other automakers are likely to throw their hats into this ring, and whether these will also use blended hybrid powertrains or stick to the original split proposal. both ferrari and mclaren were reported to have lobbied the fia over allowing road-based cars into the series; mclaren's models are all currently rear driven, while ferrari's new sf90 is a plug-in which sends traction to all four corners. toyota, the only manufacturer currently running an lmp1 car, is also said to be keen to stay in top-flight endurance racing but doesn't have a roadgoing model in this rarefied part of the market.
we look forward to hearing who else is going to be in this fight.