Aston Martin Set to Compete in Le Mans with New Valkyrie Prototype

Aston Martin’s stint in Formula One currently sees the marque becoming a decent midfielder outfit, spearheaded by two-time F1 World Drivers’ champion Fernando Alonso. However, the Gaydon-based automaker seems to have not scratched its itch in spite of partaking in the pinnacle of motorsport, as it is set make a comeback to the pinnacle of endurance racing.

Announced today is the marque’s decision to participate in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans competition later in 2025, using a new race car prototype built upon its ongoing hypercar, the Aston Martin Valkyrie. This plan will see at least one Valkyrie race car entering the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), as well as the US-based IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (simply known as IMSA), from 2025 onwards.

Aston Martin will fleet out the new Valkyrie race car in both IMSA and WEC by 2025

Should this ambitious plan come into fruition, we are set to see Aston Martin competing against fellow sportscar rivals like Ferrari and Lamborghini in several prestigious endurance events, including the 24 Hours of Daytona, 1,000 Miles of Sebring, and many more. Assisting AM in doing so is the marque’s current endurance racing partner, Heart of Racing, who collaborated with the British automaker to an IMSA title and a class win at Daytona with the Vantage GT3 race car.

The Valkyrie race car (left) will get the same Cosworth V12 mill as its road-legal twin (right), albeit with a different state-of-tune

As for this new Valkyrie race car, this Le Mans prototype will feature a fully-carbon chassis, while its power is drawn from a familiar 6.5-litre nat-asp V12 mill built by Cosworth. While said twelve-pot mill outputs 1,000 HP in the road-going Valkyrie, the Le Mans-spec car will get a different state-of-tune as per both the FIA and IMSA regulations.

Once the homologation works are completed, the all-new Aston Martin Valkyrie race car will set a new milestone in endurance racing history to become the first purebred hypercar to participate in the top class of both the WEC and IMSA.

Similar to its rivals, Aston Martin had its fair share of endurance races prior to this, as the marque previously brought home 19 class victories over a century of its participations in various endurance events. However, none can equal AM’s record in 1959, where its DBR1 race car took the overall honours that season, piloted by Roy Salvadori and automotive world icon Carroll Shelby.

Aston Martin executive chairman Lawrence Stroll

"Performance is the lifeblood of everything that we do at Aston Martin, and motorsport is the ultimate expression of this pursuit of excellence,” commented Lawrence Stroll, Executive Chairman of Aston Martin.

“We have been present at Le Mans since the earliest days, and through those glorious endeavours we succeeded in winning Le Mans in 1959 and our class 19 times over the past 95 years. Now we return to the scene of those first triumphs aiming to write new history with a racing prototype inspired by the fastest production car Aston Martin has ever built,” Stroll added.