Will Lance Stroll pilot Newey's missile? Aston Martin's Le Mans return

“Also we have this company that I’m responsible for, Aston Martin Performance Technologies, which opened in this building to bring performance and technologies from our F1 team into our road cars. And we want to take the technology from this car, the new Vantage GT3 and GT4” – ready for customers from 2024 – “and trickle it down into our road cars. I focused attention on the performance of Aston Martin when I took over. The DNA has always been racing and I want to carry that tradition louder, harder and faster.”

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the new programme is the trust that has been placed in Heart of Racing, the team that has been tasked with running both the IMSA and WEC campaigns. Founded by US-based British expat racing driver Ian James, HoR only made its debut with a lone Aston Martin at Daytona in 2020. Less than four years later, in the wake of IMSA title success and a class win at Daytona this year, James has landed the deal of his life. Now all he has to do is fulfil his part in representing a grand old British car maker on two major fronts – and deliver that first overall Le Mans win since Aston’s one and only… You know the one: 1959 and all that. So no pressure.

In the wake of Ferrari’s Le Mans victory, everyone involved in the programme will know that Aston Martin can be expected to challenge for victory at the first time of asking. That doesn’t appear to phase James, who has quietly racked up a strong reputation in US racing circles since heading west from the UK in the second half of the 1990s.

“Ambition in a racing team is to win, right?” he stated. “If I said otherwise I’d be lying. It’s the only road car-based Hypercar that will transcend to the track.”

Or as Aston Martin’s head of endurance racing, Adam Carter, put it: “We completely respect our opposition, but we are going there to win.”

The racing version of the Valkyrie that we’ll see testing next year will be directly related to the AMR Pro that has already wowed the automotive world – except it will actually be detuned to meet the Hypercar regulations. “The AMR Pro was first imagined as a Hypercar and it’s got all the ingredients and the essence of the regulations,” said Carter of a car that was essentially turned into the ultimate track day weapon once the original racing programme was stopped. “The fundamental DNA is all there for a Hypercar and there will be some evolutions to make it raceable, race serviceable and make it meet the regulations. The heart of the Valkyrie race car will come from its DNA being built into the AMR Pro.

“Most of the Hypercars can perform higher than they can at Le Mans – lap time simulations for the AMR Pro are absolutely blistering – so some of the work we’ll be doing is actually tempering it back to meet the regulations. Reduction in power and downforce and maintaining where we are on weight.”

That’s remarkable in itself: a car first developed by Adrian Newey as the most extreme missile with number plates must in essence be detuned for competition.

But what about Balance of Performance? The means by which this Hypercar era has been created is also its most troubling aspect (see Toyota’s neutering ahead of Le Mans, and victorious Ferrari’s in the WEC rounds since). Presumably Carter is confident his team will be given a fair crack of the whip?

“I’d say absolutely,” he fires back. “If you look at the grid of the centenary race Le Mans held this year, every Hypercar manufacturer actually led at some point. Everybody was in the mix, there was a true race between all manufacturers. I have got total faith in the FIA and ACO and the process around BoP. I think they have created a great series, a great opportunity for us to have, as you put it, a crack of the whip.”

So what about the drivers? As Stroll strode into the room for the big announcement, one wag behind me suggested this was the perfect avenue for his son Lance to be diverted down if (when) he fails to raise his game in F1. Then there’s 42-year-old Fernando Alonso, a two-time winner at Le Mans with Toyota. Both seem obvious options – although who’s to say when Alonso’s time in F1 will be up, given his current age-defying level of form?

“I’m sure after today my phone is going to be ringing,” said James on stage. “We have a great pool of drivers to draw from at both Heart of Racing and Aston Martin Racing. Everybody will be given an opportunity, but we are going [to Le Mans] to do well so we will pick the best drivers possible.”

Later, he made a pertinent point on why F1 superstars are far from a priority – at least from his perspective. “From a Heart of Racing point of view it’s not an ambition to have any big-name driver. Obviously I’ve been studying the landscape and this generation of top-class car is more relevant to GT drivers, as you see in the success of the Porsche and Ferrari programmes. The step going to LMP1 was much bigger. In today’s cars, considering fuel and tyre mileage and stuff like that, GT drivers manage traffic and see the bigger picture way better than someone who comes from an open-wheel background where it’s very insular, trying to do the best for themselves.

“No door is closed, for sure, and if you’ve got a world-class driver such as Fernando you’ll be jumping for joy. But I don’t think it’s crucial to the success of the programme.”

Still, it won’t be James calling the shots on this one. If Stroll Sr wants Stroll Jr in a Valkyrie, for example… well, it’ll happen. And surely Alonso will be champing at the bit to at least sample the new car when it’s ready – plus even he will cede to the march of time in F1 eventually. Scoring a third Le Mans win with Aston Martin is a long-term ambition that seems all too obvious, from what we know of the great matador.

Such matters are all far in the future. For now, Aston Martin and Heart of Racing have a long list of greater priorities – not least for Ian James to secure a UK base for his WEC team.

What we can look forward to is that certain sound. The Valkyrie will use a race-developed version of its Cosworth-built 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12 engine, and will be free of any hybrid complications too. It’s going to sound as great as it will look. In an echo of the similarly-powered Lola Aston Martin from the whispering turbo diesel LMP1 era more than a decade ago, the Valkyrie looks assured to be a fan favourite when it hits Le Mans in 2025. Even more so if its speed matches its looks and volume.