The Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH’s test and development timeline is becoming clearer, with the car’s expected race debut at the 2025 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona edging closer.
Speaking with reporters at the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa last weekend, Adam Carter, the head of endurance motorsport at Aston Martin, presented more detail about the test programme, which he confirmed is running to schedule.
“Since we last spoke to reporters at Daytona we said we would go with a mule car and test,” he said. “We’ve done that and completed the work we wanted to complete with the mule car (which is an AMR Pro with some Hypercar calibrations). That’s all but finished, but we may choose to do some system tests. But that would be 20 or 30 km on a runway as a shakedown rather than a track test.
“We’ve done a couple of days and about 1000km with the mule. It was all specific testing because of that platform, in Silverstone and Portimao. It was very focused.
“That was targeted around getting information on specific areas. We got the answers we needed so there’s no need to take the mule out again until we start running the LMH car later this year.”
The LMH will run, Carter added, at the back end of Q2 2024.
“Our target, like all racing programmes, is tight. So we’ll look to start running at the back end of the second quarter with a shakedown, then start track testing in July.”
Carter was not ready to share any further detail at this stage on when, where and for how long the car will test ahead of its homologation. However, Heart of Racing’s Ian James told DSC back in March that the target is “at least 12-15 thousand kilometres” of track running before the IMSA Daytona BoP test at the end of the year.
Carter was able to confirm that the car will test in the USA though and shed more light on what the relationship with Multimatic looks like. He also discussed the locations that the WEC and IMSA programmes will be run out of.
“In the later stages of the programme, ‘yes’ (the car will test in the USA),” he explained. “We will be focusing on one test car to start with, in Europe. Once we get over a certain threshold we will start to split cars across the US and Europe.
“And there’s no reason why these (the test chassis) can’t be used as race cars. We’ve got a number of chassis available that we can rotate.
“(The base in the UK) is up and running,” he continued when asked about the relationship with Multimatic and the new Heart of Racing base for the programme in Brackley. “They have an amount of established resource with significant sportscar experience in GT and prototype racing. They’re starting to recruit.”
He also went on to confirm that for the IMSA programme, Heart of Racing’s GTP effort is set to be run out of Arizona.
“It is a partnership between Aston Martin and Heart of Racing, Multimatic is not the race team, it’s a service provider for the chassis programme. That’s the same in the US, they are establishing the team out there and there will be commonality between how the parts are sourced and serviced.
“There will be a race team operating, which is most likely to be focused out of Phoenix.”
Will Heart of Racing continue running in GTD as well as in GTP in the USA once the Phoenix base becomes operational? “It’s a work in progress,” Carter said, “they’ve been a successful partner in GTD so the expectation is we’d like them to continue.”
The proposed two-car mandate for factory teams running in Hypercar next year came up in the conversation too. This would have an impact on Aston Martin, as its original plan was to compete with a single car in the FIA WEC and a single car in IMSA with Heart of Racing.
Carter confirmed that Aston Martin and Heart of Racing remain fully committed to racing in both the FIA WEC and IMSA with the Valkyrie. Though he wouldn’t be drawn into revealing if Heart of Racing would be the team that operated a second car in the WEC if it becomes mandatory.
“We fully support what WEC is doing with the championship, it’s growing. We are committed to a Hypercar programme, so we will review what happens with the regulations and we will have to adapt if necessary. We will do whatever is necessary to compete,” he explained.
When asked specifically whether or not Heart of Racing or another team would operate the second Valkyrie, Carter said simply: “When the regulations are clear, we will make an announcement in due course.”
As for the drivers who compete in WEC and IMSA, Carter revealed that the selection process “will be a discussion between ourselves and Heart of Racing, but led by Heart of Racing because they are race partners.”
