Finally, the 2024 Aston Martin Racing Vantage revolution has hit the entry list of the British GT Championship as the Norfolk based Forsetti Motorsport team announced a two-car GT4 class effort.

Presently busy in southern Europe with one AMR Vantage GT4 effort and another one already on the cards with the GT Cup Championship, today’s news sees a now familiar silver line up get announced alongside that of a new Pro-Am GT4 as Mikey Porter will, like the GT4 Winter Series, pair up with Jamie Day whilst we welcome a whole new driver pairing within the teams second 2024 Vantage GT4.

A brand-new chapter in Aston Martin’s illustrious racing story begins this weekend as the new Vantage GT3 makes its FIA World Endurance Championship debut in the Qatar 1812 KM at the Lusail International Circuit. 

Aston Martin is among nine of the world’s most prestigious sportscar manufacturers contesting the FIA WEC’s new-for-2024 GT racing category – featuring FIA homologated GT3 cars for the first time in the history of the series. It is in this new class, named LMGT3, that the Vantage GT3 will tackle some of the world’s most iconic sportscar endurance races on four continents, including six-hour races at both Spa-Francorchamps (BEL) and Fuji (JAP) and the series centrepiece event, the globally-celebrated 24 Hours of Le Mans (FRA), first held 101 years ago, in mid-June. 

The new Vantage GT3 descends from a succession of multiple world championship-winning predecessors and shares the mechanical architecture with the new ultra-luxury Vantage road car, unveiled earlier this month. Built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, the Vantage GT3 features an all-new nose-to-tail aerodynamic package, comprehensively revised suspension and state-of-the-art electronics, endowing this latest-generation Aston Martin GT racer with world-beating potential.

Beating the world and adding to Vantage’s impressive tally of 11 World Championship titles is exactly the target for Aston Martin partner teams D’station Racing and Heart of Racing, which will carry the British manufacturer’s hopes in LMGT3, which is replacing LMGTE Am as the lone class for GT racing cars in the FIA WEC.

It’s not just the category and car that are new within the Vantage family in 2024. D’station Racing fields a heavily-revised line-up for the new season as Tomonobu Fujii (JAP) – a cornerstone of the Japanese’s team’s roster since 2021 – steps away from driving duties to focus on his role as Managing Director and Team Principal Satoshi Hoshino (JAP) plans to contest Le Mans in June only.

Instead, Aston Martin works driver Marco Sørensen (DEN), a three-time FIA World Endurance Champion, heads the line-up and will be partnered by Erwan Bastard (FRA), a title-winner in both the GT4 European and GT4 France series. With the exception of Le Mans, the third driver will be Clément Mateu (FRA), Pro-Am class winner at the 2020 24 Hours of Spa.

Heart of Racing is taking part in its first full WEC season, having joined the series in Round 3 of 2023. The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class title-winning outfit realised a long-held ambition by contesting the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time last year and ended its campaign with a maiden podium finish at the 8 Hours of Bahrain.

The US-based outfit features an unchanged line-up from 2023 with team principal Ian James (GBR) partnered by Daniel Mancinelli (ITA) and Alex Riberas (ESP) and had the honour of giving the Vantage GT3 its competition debut in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, in which it finished a highly-creditable fourth in the GTD Pro category.

Aston Martin has been represented by Vantage in every WEC season to date since the series began in 2012 and will again be fighting for glory when the lights go out to begin the 2024 campaign at Lusail. After Qatar the WEC heads back to Europe for six-hour events at Imola (ITA) and Spa-Francorchamps (BEL) as it builds towards the biggest race in the world; the 24 Hours of Le Mans, France, on June 15-16.

The second half of the season features four races on three continents as Interlagos (BRA), COTA (USA) and Fuji (JAP) all play host to six-hour races. The now traditional season finale; the 8 Hours of Bahrain, is scheduled for November 2.

Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport said: “A world championship debut of any racing car is a very special occasion, and the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 is very special racing car. Born from a bloodline of successful predecessors we have high expectations for the latest generation Vantage, and we will do everything within our gift to support D’station Racing and the Heart of Racing in their quest for success both in WEC and at Le Mans this season. As with any new racing car, we are at the beginning of a steep learning curve, but we are coming from a title-winning platform and we’ve drawn from all we have learned over the past years to deliver a product that is vastly improved in all areas. Now we go into the ultimate testing environment against the very best the GT manufacturers in the world. It’s an exciting prospect and we cannot wait to get started.”

Source material - AMR

Photo credits - D Gibson/N Dungan

The Heart of Racing will make its first start at Lusail International Circuit this weekend in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Qatar Airways Qatar 1812 KM season opener.

The team prepared for the 2024 WEC campaign with a productive Prologue pre-season test at the track Monday and Tuesday, and is looking forward to making a solid start to the year with a straightforward run to open the championship.

Ian James, Alex Riberas and Daniel Mancinelli made the most of the Prologue test, which had 14 hours of track time on offer for the trio to learn about the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 ahead of the platform’s WEC debut. 

"We have had a couple of good test days here at the prologue," said James. "This is the first time a full grid of GT3 cars have been running under WEC rule set and with torque sensors on all the cars and although all the manufacturers were running different strategies on performance targets it was very refreshing to be out on track and get the feel with all the cars of a similar pace. Lets see what happens come the race but the Aston is well suited to this high grip smooth track so looking forward to the weekend ahead."

The race not only marks the first-ever WEC event with a new two-class format, it is also staging its debut event at the Lusail International Circuit. The Heart of Racing team will battle 17 other LMGT3 entries on the 5.419km circuit for 1,812km with a 10 hour time cap. 19 Hypercar entries will also be on track to fight for overall honors to make for a robust 37 car field. 

“I’m very excited to start the 2024 season with Heart of Racing and my mates Ian and Alex,” said Mancinelli. “This year will be with the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 which we all had the opportunity to drive already. I’ve never been to Lusail before, but the Prologue was the perfect occasion to discover the racetrack. Mentally I’m very focused and I was able to train a lot during the winter break. I’m looking forward to bringing back home strong points for the first race to start the season in the best way.”

The Heart of Racing team looks to build on its momentum from last season where the trio scored a third place finish during the season finale in Bahrain. 

“Feeling extremely grateful to be a small part of this very special project,” said Riberas. “To race in the World Championship is already a dream come true, but on top of it, to do it with such a great team and such great teammates it’s something I never thought of dreaming about. I’m sure it will be a very competitive field with 18 cars and nine outstanding manufacturers, but the team is full of very special, very talented individuals. I can’t wait to get to work.”

Most recently James and Riberas debuted in the Bathurst 12H scoring a second place class finish.

Source material - HoRT

Photo credits - D Gibson

 

It appears that despite their car’s late arrival to the circuit, Monday and Tuesday’s track sessions that formed the revised FIA World Endurance Championship pre-season Prologue test has gone quite well for the two Aston Martin Racing powered entries.

Arriving in the dead of night and giving both the Heart of Racing and D’Station Racing teams just hours to prepare their new for 2024 Vantage LMGT3 cars ahead of scrutineering and the first available test session, that both cars have come away with very respectable performance from that available track time.

 

Just a couple of weeks after the official launch of the new Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3 came today the official launch of its sister 2024 Vantage GT4 platform.

Like the GT3 before it, this new GT4 platform has also already seen the ‘light of day’ with its global race debut at the Rolex 24 supporting Michelin Pilot Challenge Series opener from Daytona in January where the new American Partner team, Rebel Rock showed off its performance.

What’s best with pre-season is seeing new teams out testing with both their new hardwear and new driver crews for the first time in readiness for their year ahead.

Recent announcements from both the Belgium Comtoyou Racing and German Walkenhorst Motorsport teams have confirmed exciting new GT3 commitments within many European based series this season and both have been busy testing within the last few days.

 

Up to four days of enforced sabbatical in Doha, and the first race is already underway for both the Heart of Racing and D’Station Racing teams as they now rush to prepare their new Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 cars for track action.

Originally scheduled to take place this weekend, the FIA World Endurance Championship were forced to delay their season opening Prologue test at the Lusail International Circuit in Qatar when it became obvious that many team’s cars and equipment will not arrive in time.

 

There’s certainly nothing wrong with a little inter Aston Martin Racing powered rivalry between Partner teams as the Walkenhorst Motorsport team today confirmed two further GT3 crews of their own to go alongside those of Comtoyou Racing announced earlier in the week.

Whilst the Belgium Comtoyou Racing team announced a full Pro driver line up of Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Mattea Drudi within one of their new 2024 AMR Vantage GT3 cars to be entered into this season’s GT World Challenge Europe Series Endurance Cup, todays sees the German based Walkenhorst team confirm both a Pro class entry for divers Ross Gunn, Henrique Chaves and David Pittard to go alongside their silver class entry of Romain Leroux, Lorcan Hanafin and Maxime Robin.

 

We knew that something big was in the making and having waited a few more weeks for that confirmation to come to us sees one of Aston Martin Racing’s latest Partner team confirm a full Pro driver line up in this year’s GT World Challenge Europe Series Endurance Cup.

Adding the nostalgia of launching this year’s centenary running of the Spa 24 with the backdrop of the old Abbey in Stavelot, saw the Comtoyou Racing team confirm that AMR factory drivers Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and ‘new recruit’ and last year’s GTWCE Sprint Champion Mattea Drudi team up for an all-out assault of the overall crown this season.

 

Whilst the world stage has been within something of a start of year lull this week, elsewhere around the world, various Aston Martin Racing powered teams have been busy preparing for their next stage.

Not in any particular order, the Heart of Racing team have been testing at Sebring this week in preparation to the second round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship at the circuit in just under three weeks’ time.