Aston Martin will make its highly anticipated return to top-level endurance racing in 2025 with a Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) developed from the Adrian Newey-designed Valkyrie road car.
The Valkyrie LMH is the only Le Mans 24 Hours contender derived from a road-legal hypercar and the first race car eligible to compete in both the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the US.
The British manufacturer has confirmed that its factory-backed Aston Martin The Heart of Racing Team (THOR) will field the Valkyrie LMH, which is set to make its competitive debut in the opening round of the 2025 WEC at the Qatar 1812km on February 28, 2025.
Aston Martin boasts a storied history at Le Mans, dating back almost 100 years to its first appearance in 1928
“This is a proud moment for Aston Martin,” enthused CEO Adrian Hallmark. “To be returning to the fight for overall honours at the Le Mans 24 Hours exists at the very core of our values and marks a key milestone in our motor-racing heritage.”
Aston Martin boasts a storied history at Le Mans, dating back almost 100 years to its first appearance in 1928. The marque’s sole overall victory came in 1959, when Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby steered the DBR1 to a 1-2 finish, ahead of team-mates Maurice Trintignant and Paul Frère.
After shifting its focus to GT racing in more recent years, Aston Martin secured class wins with the DBR9 in 2007 and 2008, and the Vantage GTE in 2017 and 2020. The Valkyrie LMH represents the marque’s first bid for outright victory since the ill-fated AMR-One LMP1 project in 2011.
Briton Harry Tincknell, Aston Martin’s most recent Le Mans class winner, will be joined by his countryman Tom Gamble in the no. 007 Valkyrie for the full WEC season. The sister no. 009 car will be steered by triple FIA GT World Champion Marco Sørensen and WEC LMGT3 class race winner Alex Riberas.
Aston Martin will field one car in the IMSA series. The THOR Team’s no. 23 GTP class entry will be piloted by IMSA GTD Pro championship contender Ross Gunn and 2022 GTD class champion Roman De Angelis. Both Gunn and De Angelis will also join the WEC contenders to complete the three-driver line-ups at Le Mans, with Gunn partnering Tincknell and Gamble in the no. 007 Valkyrie for the legendary race on June 14-15, 2025.
The Valkyrie LMH has been co-developed by Aston Martin Performance Technologies and THOR. It features a competition-spec carbonfibre monocoque derived from the Valkyrie road car, and is powered by a reworked, lean-burn version of that machine’s Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12. Power is sent to the rear axle via an Xtrac seven-speed sequential transmission.
Under Le Mans Hypercar regulations, power output is capped at 680bhp – significantly less than the 1139bhp produced by the road-going Valkyrie. Aston Martin claims this will enhance reliability, particularly since the powerplant was originally engineered for the durability demands of a high-duty cycle road-car engine. Another benefit of the power cap is fuel efficiency – particularly when combined with lean-burn combustion.
“Running lean to reduce the amount of fuel you are carrying to deliver the required stint energy is important,” explained head of endurance motor sport Adam Carter. “The lower power limit within the regulations creates an opportunity for us to revisit the torque curve and reduce frictional losses by reducing engine speed to increase fuel efficiency.”
Aerodynamically, the car has been adapted to adhere to FIA and IMSA regulations from the road-car package co-created by COO Marek Reichman and Formula 1 design guru Adrian Newey, who joins the Aston Martin Formula 1 team this year following a 19-year stint at Red Bull Racing. Additional race-focused enhancements include quick-change bodywork, a single-point rapid-refuelling coupling and an integrated high-speed pneumatic jack system.
The Valkyrie LMH features a double-wishbone suspension set-up at all four corners, with pushrod-actuated torsion-bar springs and fully adjustable dampers for precision tuning. It rides on regulation-compliant 18-inch wheels, wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport rubber.
Aston has confirmed that THOR has logged more than 15,000km of testing since the Valkyrie LMH’s initial shakedown in July 2024. The intensive programme has spanned a diverse range of circuits – including Donington Park, Silverstone, Jerez, Qatar, Sebring and Daytona – carefully selected to replicate the demands of the 2025 WEC and IMSA seasons.
“It’s a great time to be joining the pinnacle of sports car racing. The ACO, IMSA and the FIA have collectively created championships of growing popularity through working collaboratively,” Adam Carter concluded. “They have done a great job of establishing the format and promoting the series to make this a golden era of sports car racing. It’s an opportunity to compete on the global stage in a fair and competitive environment.”
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