2020 World Endurance GT Champions and 24 Hours of Le Mans GTE Pro class winners Aston Martin will not enter the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship in GTE Pro and will switch their remaining GT race programmes to focus on customer operations.
That’s the not-unexpected headline today from a story that has been well known in outline to DSC for many weeks, the recent fiscal woes for the company, and a rescue package that included a commitment to Formula One from 2021 with the renamed Racing Point Team always looked set to put question marks over the future of the GTE effort.
There is some good news in the detail of the announcement with Prodrive confirmed as having agreed a “new and revised” agreement for the Banbury-based organisation to continue exclusively manufacturing and distributing the current generation of front-engine GT race cars in a multi-year deal for Aston Martin Racing.
That includes, DSC understands, GT4, GT3 and customer GTE versions of the current Vantage platform.
There is also a strong likelihood that one or more Vantage GTEs in customer team hands might be confirmed in the FIA WEC entry for the forthcoming 2021 season.
The cessation of the GTE Programme comes in the wake of a season of success for the factory team with the 8 Hours of Bahrain last month seeing Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim adding the FIA WEC GT Drivers’ World Championship to the World Manufacturers’ title that Aston Martin clinched at Le Mans.
The press release from Aston Martin says that the company “will now strive for more accolades in GT racing with Vantage.
The brand is now targeting blue riband endurance events with “partner teams competing in the Intercontinental GT Challenge, the GT World Challenge, the US-based IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship, the Super GT Championship as well as other significant high-profile series.”
It is not clear as yet though what level of factory support, via technical assistance and/ or the placement of factory drivers, will form part of the next stage of the brands’ motorsport strategy.
President, Aston Martin Racing, David King said: “This year has been one of unprecedented success for Vantage in international motorsport. At all levels, from GTE, through GT3 to the entry level GT4, we have experienced significant championship success, winning 26 titles across the spectrum of world, international and domestic series. But there is more to achieve, and there is more to come from Vantage, which is why we have concluded that now is the time for us to shift the weight of factory support to our partners as we go in pursuit of success in the most important events in GT racing.”
Chief Executive Officer, Aston Martin Lagonda, Tobias Moers said: “Vantage proved it has world champion pedigree in 2020, and in its GTE variant is a 24-hour race winner. Now with the Vantage GT3 we wish to give our partners and customers the best opportunity possible to fight for victory against our closest rivals in the toughest endurance challenges GT racing has to offer.”
Since the start of the FIA WEC in 2012 Aston Martin has been an ‘ever-present’ with 47 class wins and 103 podiums, nine class championships and four 24 Hours of Le Mans class victories.
The announcement today will bring an unbroken 16 year run of factory Aston Martin entries at Le Mans to an end after GT1, LMP1 and then GTE campaigns.
Aston Martin’s Vantage GT customer race cars in all configurations achieved 62 victories and 157 podiums from 323 starts in more than 20 series around the world in the latest version of the Vantage’s second full season of competition.
In total, including Aston Martin Racing’s two world championships, Vantage captured 26 GT or endurance titles internationally.
Pics Nick Dungan/ Drew Gibson & DSC
