The British producer will stay concerned within the GT3 and GT4 lessons for the foreseeable future, it was announced on the launch of the Valkyrie programme on Wednesday.
To that impact, Aston shall be producing new variations of its GT3 and GT4 buyer vehicles on the Vantage platform together with Prodrive beneath the Aston Martin Racing banner in time for subsequent season.
These shall be homologation evolutions of the present vehicles, Aston Martin head of endurance motorsport Adam Carter defined, whereas including that the “naming of the vehicles stays a piece in progress”.
The present-generation Vantage GT3 and GT4 vehicles had been launched to prospects in 2019, one yr after the introduction of the GTE model of the automobile that can cease racing on the conclusion of this yr.
Buyer GT racing will stay central to the marque’s motorsport technique going ahead, based on Carter.
“It goes again to Aston Martin constructing racing sportscars being a part of our DNA,” Carter advised Autosport.
“GT3 and GT4 are completely the locations for our vehicles to be raced. Our prospects love racing Aston Martins: they love the vehicles and so they love the model.
“By additionally confirming Aston Martin’s dedication to a brand new GT3 and GT4 challenger, we sign our intent to compete for victory in any respect ranges of sportscar racing now and nicely into the longer term.”
Aston Martin Valkyrie
Photograph by: Aston Martin
Aston will proceed to work with Prodrive, which has had a sequence of rolling contracts with Aston Martin since 2004 when it started improvement of the DBR9 GT1 automobile that began racing the next season.
“The product Prodrive has delivered for Aston Martin over time has been nice: it has been performant and dependable,” mentioned Carter.
“They’ve performed an important job and there’s no purpose to maneuver away – success needs to be rewarded.”
He defined that there shall be enter for the brand new Aston Martin Efficiency Applied sciences operation, which shall be centred on getting the GT racing programme “cross-pollinating extra” with the street automobile division.
Carter additionally re-iterated Aston Martin’s need to be on the grid within the new LMGT3 class that can change GTE Am within the World Endurance Championship subsequent yr.
He mentioned that he hoped the FIA and WEC promoter the Vehicle Membership de l’Ouest would look favourably on a model that has been concerned within the GTE Professional and Am divisions from the institution of the sequence in its present guise in 2012.
“Aston Martin has received a really lengthy historical past with WEC and has supported the championship and GT racing at Le Mans beforehand,” he mentioned.
#98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR of Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, Alex Riberas
Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“We completely hope to be at Le Mans and within the WEC subsequent yr in LMGT3, however we additionally respect that there’s a choice committee and respect the place of the FIA and the ACO.”
House for LMGT3 entries shall be restricted subsequent yr with the expansion of the Hypercar class even with the disappearance of LMP2 from the championship, and WEC bosses have said that these producers additionally concerned in Hypercar can have precedence.
Profitable producers will get two entries and should choose the group they need to characterize them.
Carter mentioned it stays too early to call the group Aston will put ahead to take up any entries, however Coronary heart of Racing boss Ian James outlined a need for the group that can run the Valkyrie LMH from 2025 to stay within the sequence subsequent yr.
“We wish to be there within the WEC and would hope that we’d be one in all Aston’s favoured groups,” he mentioned.
It joined the WEC this yr on the Spa spherical in April when it took over the NorthWest AMR entry run by Prodrive on the retirement of group patron Paul Dalla Lana.