It’s been eight years since Aston Martin unveiled the road-going Valkyrie. Over that timespan, Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll bought the British luxury automaker and its partnership with the hypercar’s co-developer Red Bull Advanced Technologies collapsed. Plans to race the hypercar at Le Mans were seemingly dead a few years ago, but the program was resurrected in 2023, and the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH will finally make its competitive debut this month at the Qatar 1812 km.
Aston Martin and the Heart of Racing team revealed their full driver lineup and the Valkyrie’s two liveries for the 2025 season on Tuesday. The factory effort will sport traditional British Racing Green in the FIA World Endurance Championship and a variation of THOR’s deep blue in the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship. Both versions of the paint scheme feature a distinctive checkered pattern, which provides a splash of uniformity across the Atlantic.
From its testing debut in July last year through January, the Aston Martin THOR Team completed over 9,300 miles of running with the Valkyrie. Along with developing a car that can race for 24 hours, the program was tasked with detuning the hypercar for competition. For example, Le Mans Hypercar regulations have a maximum horsepower limit of 680 horsepower, while the production Valkyrie’s 6.5-litre V12 engine produces over 1,000 horsepower. Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s Head of Endurance Motorsport, said:
“Running lean to reduce the amount of fuel you are carrying to deliver the required stint energy is important. We operate the engine slower than it’s capable of because we require less power. 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.”
Aston Martin THOR is set to race two Valkyries in Qatar and the rest of the WEC season, No. 007 and No. 009. The Bond-numbered hypercar features an all-British line-up with two-time Le Mans class winner Harry Tincknell and young driver Tom Gamble. Three-time WEC GT champion Marco Sørensen and Spanish driver Alex Riberas will drive the No. 009.
The program is fielding a single Valkyrie in IMSA with 2015 British GT champion Ross Gunn and 2022 IMSA GTD champion Roman De Angelis. For Le Mans, Gunn will join the No. 007 crew, while De Angelis will be the No. 009’s third driver. Despite convergence creating a single top-class prototype ruleset, the Valkyrie will be the first ACO-envisioned LMH car to compete in IMSA. It’s far more common to see cars built to IMSA’s LMDh ruleset racing in WEC.
