World Endurance GT Champion and 24 Hours of Le Mans double-class winner Aston Martin will switch the strategic focus of its Vantage GT motorsport programme to concentrate on customer operations from 2021 onwards, bringing an end to a hugely successful nine-year run as a manufacturer team in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Concluding with its double world championship triumph in the 8 Hours of Bahrain last month, where Marco Sørensen (DEN) and Nicki Thiim (DEN) added the WEC GT Drivers’ endurance crown to the Manufacturers’ title that Aston Martin clinched at Le Mans, the British sportscar manufacturer has achieved every target it set for the 4-litre V8 Vantage GTE – based on the highly acclaimed Vantage road car. Aston Martin will now apply its vast experience and expertise with front-engined GT race cars to drive more success across the international GT racing landscape.

Aston Martin is one of three car manufacturers to have been a mainstay of WEC since the series’ inception in 2012. In its nine years and seven seasons of WEC, Aston Martin has recorded 47 class wins and 103 podiums, nine class championships and four 24 Hours of Le Mans class victories. And there could yet be more for Vantage with Aston Martin hopeful that it will retain a WEC presence through a partner team in 2021 and beyond.

Outside of WEC, Aston Martin’s Vantage GT customer race car has achieved breathtaking success in its second full season of competition. Teams recorded 62 victories and 157 podiums from 323 starts in more than 20 series around the world. One in five race starts for Vantage ended with a win, while half of them concluded on the podium. Of those starts, 14% were from the race or class pole position. In total, including Aston Martin Racing’s two world championships, Vantage captured 26 GT or endurance titles internationally.

With the brand poised to return to Formula 1TM in 2021 for the first time since 1960, Aston Martin will now strive for more accolades in GT racing with Vantage. It is 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.

The shift in strategy for Aston Martin’s endurance programme comes as a new and revised agreement with Prodrive has been concluded 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.

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.”

Source material - AMR

World GT Manufacturers’ champions Aston Martin embark on the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) finale – the 8 Hours of Bahrain – this weekend, aiming to record a level of title glory unprecedented in the British luxury sportscar brand’s history. Aston Martin has enjoyed its most successful endurance racing season since 1959, with the turbo-charged 4-litre V8 Vantage GTE.
 
Sixty-one years ago, Aston Martin won the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Roy Salvadori and Carroll Shelby, as well as the World Sportscar Championship thanks to additional wins by Stirling Moss and Jack Fairman at Goodwood and the Nürburging in the DBR1/300. These famous victories ensured that Aston Martin defeated its rivals, Ferrari and Porsche.

Six decades later and Aston Martin has done it again, clinching a historic double victory in both the GTE classes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in September, when Alex Lynn (GB), Maxime Martin (BEL) and Harry Tincknell (GB) delivered a brilliant performance to clinch the GT Manufacturers’ FIA World Endurance Championship crown, ahead of those same old adversaries Porsche and Ferrari.

The #97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE Pro crew’s win was their first of the season, which has been the longest in FIA WEC history due in part to the Coronavirus pandemic. The result also moved the drivers back into contention for the GT FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Championship, 15 points behind team-mates and series leaders Marco Sørensen (DEN) and Nicki Thiim (DEN) in the #95 car.

Unfortunately, only Martin will be able to compete alongside the Danes for the world title after Lynn received a positive test for Covid-19 last weekend and has therefore not travelled to Bahrain. His place in the line-up has been taken by Richard Westbrook (GB), who was already expected to race with the team in the #98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE Am entry.
 
“It’s incredibly disappointing to end the FIA World Endurance Championship season in this way,” said Lynn, who is self-isolating at home. “Especially after the amazing high of the Le Mans victory that brought us back into title contention. I wish all my team-mates the best of luck this weekend, but especially Maxime and Richard.”

Thiim and Sørensen have been the on-form driver pairing this season, with three victories and two second places from seven starts. But with the eight-hour race worth 1.5 times the points of a normal six-hour event, meaning for the second time this season there are 38 points available for a victory plus another for pole position, there is no room for complacency. Particularly since one for the drivers from Ferrari’s leading GTE crew is also within striking distance.
 
“It comes down to this,” said Thiim, “after all the blood sweat and tears that have gone into this both from the team, who have already won the manufacturers’ championship with this amazing Vantage GTE, and from the drivers. This is what you dream about as a driver, the chance to fight for a world championship. To have done it once with Marco in 2016, and to have the chance to do it again is simply amazing. But we still have a job to do, eight hours is a long time in motor racing and we have a big fight on our hands. We will give it everything.”

2017 WEC GTE Am champion Pedro Lamy (POR) rejoins Paul Dalla Lana in the #98 Vantage GTE alongside Ross Gunn (GB). A veteran of 17 victories in the class, Pedro makes a welcome return to the GTE Am line-up as the crew goes in hunt of a victory to round-off the season in style.
 
TF Sport became the first customer team to win the GTE Am class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with an Aston Martin in September and in doing so moved to the top of the FIA Endurance Trophy for GTE Drivers’ and Teams’ standings. It means that works drivers Jonny Adam (GB), Charlie Eastwood (GB) as well as Salih Yoluc (TUR) have an eight-point advantage going into the finale.

If they win the championships, and one of Aston Martin’s Pro crews prevail, it will be only the second time in the sport’s history that a manufacturer has won both GTE classes at Le Mans as well as all four GTE FIA WEC titles.
 
Aston Martin Racing Managing Director John Gaw said: “We go into the final round of the 2019-20 WEC with drivers in contention for the world title, which is an exceptional position to be in and a testament to the depth of quality and hard work delivered throughout the team. That Alex is not able to join us is hugely disappointing for everyone, and we wish him well. Now we must focus on completing the job and ensure that we come away from Bahrain having delivered on our mission to win both GTE world titles.”

Aston Martin Racing President David King said: “We are delighted to have won both classes so comprehensively at Le Mans, which contributed to us being able to secure the Manufacturers’ title prior to the season finale. We are now looking forward to trying to put the icing on the cake and being able to secure both the Pro and Am drivers’ and teams’ championships would crown a remarkable season for Aston Martin, and our best results in endurance racing since 1959. But whatever happens this weekend, we can leave 2020 secure in the knowledge that we are the top GT manufacturer in sportscar racing.”

Source material - AMR

Aston Martin has won the 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans. The British manufacturer, which was last victorious in the world famous event in 2017, recorded its best ever result at the Circuit de la Sarthe by winning both GT classes and with three crews standing on the podium. The result means that Aston Martin scored enough points to secure the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) manufacturers’ title with one round remaining.

It was works drivers Alex Lynn (GB) and Maxime Martin (BEL), along with former Le Mans class-winner Harry Tincknell (GB), who took the most coveted win in endurance racing after a flawless performance in the #97 Vantage GTE and a thrilling and nail-biting 24-hour battle with the works team Ferraris.
David King, President Aston Martin Racing added that “the team have worked so hard with the new Vantage for three years now to make it a Le Mans and a world championship winner against the toughest of competitor teams. I am so proud to see the Aston Martin Vantage beat such illustrious rivals on the track in the ultimate test of man and machine. I’m only sorry that so many of our brand partners, customers and fans who usually join us here in France were unable to do so this year, but we felt the support and really appreciate all the messages and the good will.”

Aston Martin Racing qualified on the second row in both of the GTE classes for the 88th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans following an exciting inaugural Hyperpole shoot-out.

All four Aston Martin Vantage GTEs entered for this year’s race made it through to Hyperpole, having dominated yesterday’s 45-minute qualifying session. The exciting 30-minute event, new for 2020, gave one driver from each car the chance to take advantage of the clear track and show what they can do.

After so much passion and perseverance from the event and Championship organisers to maintain the spectacle that is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, tonight we finally arrive at the eve of the 88th Edition of the event in what can only be described as the most bizarre but unfortunately necessary set of circumstances.

Having been forced to move from its usual mid-June date through to September because of the national and indeed global ramifications of the ongoing COVID-19 situation there have been times in the preceding weeks where the event has looked distinctly fragile and vulnerable. Constant meetings with national bodies with mitigating actions being put forward by both the ACO and the FIA eventually saw it eventually sadly necessary for the paying public to be excluded from the event in order to keep the event alive and that is where we find ourselves tonight.

Aston Martin Racing heads into the 88th running of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans aiming to take its third class victory with Vantage, and secure the 2019/2020 World Endurance Championship. For the first time at the Circuit de la Sarthe, both classes will race with the current turbo-charged 4-litre V8 Vantage GTE, with three works team entries and one customer car firmly setting sights on its maiden Le Mans win.

This year, for only the third time in its history, the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been moved from its traditional mid-June slot to a late-September date and sadly, for the first time, the famous event will be run behind closed doors as France moves to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while there will be no fans in the tribunes opposite the world’s busiest pitlane, Aston Martin Racing is determined to put on a good show for the millions watching on television around the world by repeating its 2017 triumph for Darren Turner, Jonny Adam and Daniel Serra.


Last year’s GTE Pro pole-sitters and the current FIA World Championship (WEC) GTE Drivers’ points leaders Nicki Thiim (DEN) and Marco Sørensen (DEN) lead the charge in the #95 ‘Dane Train’ and will be joined by the super-experienced Richard Westbrook (GB). Only Thiim has stood on the top step of the podium at Le Mans before, when Aston Martin last won the GTE-Am class in 2014, but victory for him and Sørensen is all the more important in 2020 because it could also net them the world championship title depending on the fate of their closest rivals.

“I hope that we can win it this year, it feels like our time to fight for it,” said Thiim. “Just to be so competitive is a great feeling after the frustrations we’ve encountered at Le Mans in recent years. We also need to keep the right mentality towards the world championship. There are a lot of points at stake and for us, the main objective is to stay ahead of Porsche, so we want to finish ahead of them in the race.”


Sørensen added: “This year’s Le Mans is going to be one of the most important races in my career. We are going to race hard and try and win it but we are also going to be thinking a lot about the championship. We have to keep our heads down and focus.”

Their team-mates Alex Lynn (GB) and Maxime Martin (BEL), who will be joined in the #97 Vantage GTE by British racer Harry Tincknell, are among those who can challenge the Danes for the title, but to do so they must record a strong finish at Le Mans ahead of the #95 car.


All three Aston Martin crews, including the #98 GTE Am team of Paul Dalla Lana (CDN), Ross Gunn (GB) and Augusto Farfus (BR) will benefit from significant testing preparations in recent weeks, as the team honed the Vantage GTE for the specific requirements of the fast Le Mans circuit. The car will go in to the 2020 edition at La Sarthe with different Michelin tyre options as well as optimized suspension, brake and aero set ups since the cars last raced there more than 14 months ago.

As one of the favourites in the GTE Am battle, the #98 crew will face strong competition from Aston Martin Racing partner team TF Sport whose drivers Salih Yoluc (TUR), works driver Charlie Eastwood (GB) and 2017 winner Adam (GB) have won three races so far this season and are just 12 points away from the championship lead. “We set out at the beginning of the season to regain the world championship we won in 2017, and that remains our target, but it would be the fulfillment of a dream to win Le Mans!”, said Dalla Lana, who has never triumphed at Le Mans but has come very close on several occasions.


Aston Martin Racing Head of Performance, Gustavo Beteli said: “This is one of the strongest driver line-ups that we have ever taken to Le Mans across the three entries, and we have worked incredibly hard to prepare the cars for this year’s race. Nothing has been left on the table, but Le Mans is one of the most challenging races and there are plenty of things that can happen that are out of your control. This year’s race will be different because of the time of year, and 12 hours of it will be run in the dark. Success will be all about focus, a good strategy and hitting the ground running.”

Aston Martin Racing Team Principal Paul Howarth added: "Le Mans is always about preparation and focus if you want to be competitive, and this year it is even more critical with the necessary distractions surrounding measures to protect everyone from the coronavirus as well as the significant changes to the schedule. Moreover, with double the points on offer than you receive for a regular six-hour race, a good result can confirm a title while a poor result might render us out of contention. It is absolutely critical we absorb these pressures and use it to motivate us further, so that we take advantage of all opportunities.”


Aston Martin Vice President Chief Special Operations Officer and President Aston Martin Racing David King said: “It’s been a while since we have been in this position, where we go to Le Mans in a position to fight for class victory and also be at the sharp end of a fierce fight for world championship titles. It’s why we enter WEC and it’s why we compete at Le Mans and we relish the prospect of being able to compete for both. I firmly believe that with a fair wind, and a strong performance, the car and the team has the capability to deliver a fifth class win for Aston Martin in the modern era and the first world championship title since 2017.”

Source material - AMR

Aston Martin Racing fought back from adversity in a fiercely-contested Total 6 Hours of Spa – Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) – to record a hugely competitive double-podium in Belgium and maintain its convincing lead in the GT Manufacturers’ and GTE Pro Drivers’ standings.

Despite two torrential rain showers, one of which forced the race to begin behind the Safety Car, three further Safety Car periods, two punctures and several critical strategic calls to manage an ever-changing race, the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE driven by Danish duo Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen raced through to second place – finishing just 5.6s behind the GTE Pro leader.

Behind them, in third position were their team-mates Maxime Martin (BEL) and Alex Lynn (GB), who came within seven minutes of fuel’s-worth of winning the Belgian race for the second year in succession. Another short Safety Car period was all they needed to save enough fuel for a brilliant victory, but alas in the end it required a splash-and-dash with two laps to go and they dropped to third position. Moreover, the #97 crew had been nursing a brake issue in the closing stages and Martin drove brilliantly to fend off his rivals and take the podium.

The historic race track at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium has throughout its prestigious history never failed to amaze in terms of the races it produces but every now and again, the micro-climate weather systems that the local geography produces also goes a long way in adding to that magic and this weekends return to racing for the World Endurance Championship was certainly no different.

Last year of course we saw a landscape covered in snow on race morning before we saw that thaw out to leave a bright but chilly start to that years 6 Hours of Spa only to see numerous weather systems to come through to frankly sought the 'men from the boys!'

After weeks of continuous high temperatures, race day today saw about a fifty percent reduction in the ambient temperature from earlier this week as well as an earlier arrival to the expected rainfall which more than dampening down the circuit in the hour before the green flag. A COVID-19 instigated change in grid procedures also saw the cars take in two sighting laps (for the benefit of not have driven on a wet circuit at the World Endurance Championships return to racing this weekend) before essential engineers only were permitted on the grid before the formation lap.


The starting order within the GTE Pro class had already been switched about as the #92 Porsche had had its pole position reinstated on appeal over night meaning that the #97 and #95 Aston Martin Racing Vantages stepped back to P2 and P3 respectively. In GTE Am, the #98 AMR car would still start in P4 ahead of the #90 TF Sport's P6 position as the field was lead away for the first of four laps behind the Safety Car before the race went to green.

Issues for the four AMR cars came quickly apparent as both cars understeered off at Bruxelles, each losing out on track position in the process as the track conditions quickly worsened and the levels of spray decreased visibility amongst the trees. Next time around the #98 of Paul Dalla Lana locked up into the same corner as both Maxime Martin and Marco Sorensen went wide at and that error sent the Canadian back to the rear of the pack by the time he recovered.


In fact it soon became apparent that all four AMR's were struggling for front end grip as each of Martin, Sorensen, Dalla Lana and Salih Yoluc (aboard his #90 TF Sport GTE) suffered from persistent understeer even as the circuit slowly dried out with the GTE's heading towards their first stop. Whilst the three factory supported cars all double stinted their drivers, TF Sport swapped out Yoluc for Jonny Adam with Yoluc later commenting that the "car was not seeming to have a lot of grip at the moment - were hoping for the rain to stop and the track to dry as the car was suffering from a lot of understeer".

With parts of the circuit drying out quickly, Dalla Lana was dispatched from his first stop on slicks but the change in elevation around the back where the track was still wet and caught him out with some snap oversteer to spin off backwards into the gravel trap on the outside of turn 13 bringing out the Safety Car again for his extraction from that place of danger.


Twenty minutes of race time was lost to that recovery and the resulting wave around before the race got back to full speed again with the #98 now last and three laps down as the rain began to fall again. Things then appeared to go from bad to worse for AMR as the #95 car with Nicki Thiim now behind the wheel came in with a rear nearside puncture - luckily it wasn't too from from pit entry so not to much time was lost and no structural damage was sustained on the car.

With two hours gone and with heavy rain again expected and advised by Race Control, Alex Lynn's #97 car had moved up to P2 again after overtaking the #92 Porsche before nearly losing it again at Bruxelles. Augusto Farfus's entree into the WEC and Aston Martin Racing would see him quickly revisit pit lane to serve a drive penalty for speeding in the pit lane - rubbing salt into their wounds of earlier.


Then the rains came again, this time much more heavily and Race Control had no choice but to neutralise the race with the introduction of the Safety Car again. By the time clearer skies were next seen above the circuit, the race clock had clocked down a further thirty minutes.

With the race leaders have pitting behind the Safety Car, that allowed the GTE leading #51 Ferrari and the #97 AMR to take restart the race but at least they had relatively clear visibility as they rushed up through Eau Rouge as Lynn pushed the AF Corse car had for P1 and Thiim pushed the sister #71 Ferrari for position in P4 but they was something different about these two cars as opposed to earlier - but there was no visible improvement in the #90 TF Sport car. That was later put down to an earlier incorrect choice in tyre compounds and pressures on the factory cars at the start that induced this obvious understeer issue.

Charlie Eastwood got his first taste in the race at the four hour mark as Adam returned the #90 to pit lane from P3 in GTE Am, having slowly plugged away at the gaps ahead and used the Safety Car restarts wisely. Ross Gunn also joined in the proceedings aboard the #98 car just as Thiim forced the #92 Porsche into an error from where the Dane assumed the race lead for the first time.


The remaining time in the race for Eastwood would become something of a lonely one with only a stoop watch for company as he struggled to overcome the forty second deficit to the car ahead and maintain the twenty three seconds to the car behind. The #97 would report brake issues as they made their penultimate stop.

With about eighty minutes remaining, a high speed accident for the #36 Signatech Alpine LMP2 car at Blanchimont brought out an immediate Safety Car as the prototype half rolled on impact with the tyre wall. Fortunately the driver was able to walk away from the wreckage unaided although a visit to the circuits Medical Centre was a must considering the velocity of impact.

During this final lull in proceedings, the #95 car would pit for their final time just after the top of the final hour - the #97 would stay out but it was soon announced over the airwaves that they would have to stop and again for a splash and dash. The Safety Car also meant that the gap infant of Eastwood had all come back down to nothing as he reclaimed the P3 position hard earned by Adam earlier in the race.


Going into the final twenty minute of the race, Martin would lose the class lead as he out braked himself in La Source but however they managed fuel - they would have to pit at some point as the #95 car was told not to pass their team mates on track for position. Pitting with just seven minutes remaining, the #97 was able to exit again just ahead of the chasing #51 Ferrari and #91 Porsche and retain that gap for the next three laps.

Subject to official confirmation, the 6Hrs of Spa would finish with the #95 AMR Vantage taking P2 in GTE Pro with the #97 not too far behind in #P3. Despite their early issues the TF Sport crew dug deep to turn around a likely low finish with a P3 finish in class while the #98 earned some points with their P9 finish but were left to consider what might have been.


Points being all very important as usual as the Championship now makes the lonely trip over to France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in September - a race that will now be held behind closed doors!

Aston Martin Racing celebrated its return to active duty, following the coronavirus lockdown, with a first ever front-row lock-out for the Aston Martin Vantage GTE in qualifying for the Total 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), in Belgium, on Friday.

Maxime Martin (BEL) and Alex Lynn (GB) clinched their first pole position for the British luxury sportscar brand at the same venue where they scored their maiden victory for Aston Martin, 14 months ago. The duo outpaced their GTE Drivers’ World Championship-leading team-mates Nicki Thiim (DEN) and Marco Sørensen (DEN) by a mere 0.008s in a fiercely-contested qualifying session that witnessed several lap deletions for track limit violations.