Will Aston Martin’s Valkyrie Hypercar Programme Hit The Track After All?

Aston Martin may well be represented in the booming Hypercar class, potentially from 2025 onwards, with a revived, privately-funded programme focused on the brand’s Valkyrie supercar.

DSC sources have confirmed that a privately but fully-funded engine programme is set to adapt the 1000 bhp normally aspirated 6.5 litre V12 that powers the car to the 670 bhp output level required by the Hypercar ruleset.

DSC can confirm that the likely funding for the programme comes with not insignificant motorsport credibility.

Other sources have suggested that any eventual race programme would be focused around a two-car effort in the WEC with potential for an additional programme in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

It is not currently clear whether the intention is for a factory-entered team. By regulation, Aston Martin would have to approve use of their brand should a privately-entered Valkyrie effort be in any planned programme.

The ups and downs of the Valkyrie Hypercar programme

The British carmaker was initially an early adopter of the regulations, with a programme announced at Le Mans in 2019 to bring factory effort to the FIA WEC.

However, the programme was later ‘paused’, the brand citing the convergence process. In reality, though, the then shaky state of the parent company’s core finances and the shift of emphasis to F1 after the Lawrence Stroll-co-ordinated refunding was clearly closer to the core reasoning, with the Valkyrie road car programme struggling at that point.

The in-out nature of the Aston Martin programme had a number of impacts on the developing Hypercar class, not least an enforced redesign for Toyota’s GR010 around a ruleset reconfigured to allow the road car-based Valkyrie to compete.

It also required a switch from Glickenhaus from itss initially intended Alfa Romeo powerplant to the current bespoke Pipo Moteurs unit which was more capable of producing the initially required higher power output, before the ruleset was changed (again) to accommodate the lower-powered, heavier ‘converged’ version.

Aston Martin continued to develop the Valkyrie in roadgoing form and track-only AMR Pro spec, the latter utilising much of the development work undertaken for the Hypercar proposal.

2022 then saw media statements from Lawrence Stroll over the potential for the brand to join the top class at Le Mans as early as this year in a programme that did not come to fruition.