WEC | Aston Martin begins testing program of Valkyrie LMH

The British manufacturer's test program kicked off at the beginning of the month with the Valkyrie AMR Pro, from which the new LMH was born which will be driven by the Heart of Racing team starting next year in the Endurance championship.

Adam Carter described the tests at Silverstone as a “first test to verify the systems” before the final LMH begins a more in-depth and specific program later in the year. Additionally, Aston Martin's head of endurance racing explained that there is “fundamental software work we can do” with the AMR Pro.

Carter said the test took place on an “extremely cold day at Silverstone” and that the honor of debuting the Valkyrie had been entrusted to “a trusted member of the Aston Martin Racing family”. Further testing with the AMR Pro is planned before the LMH version goes live later this year.

“It will be very intensive testing, because the platform already exists and so we can start pushing with very targeted objectives. We have very clear objectives when it comes to testing,” Carter explained.

In fact, according to the Aston Martin manager, the LMH will hit the track towards the end of the second quarter of this year. The AMR Pro was developed starting from the original Valkyrie LMH project, presented on the eve of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2019, but which was however frozen at the beginning of the following year.

It is a long wheelbase and non-hybrid version of the road Valkyrie created by the brilliant British Formula 1 designer Adrian Newey in collaboration with Aston Martin, when the English company was a sponsor of Red Bull. The original first project car, which was supposed to start racing in the WEC in 2021 according to original plans, was built according to rules formulated to allow manufacturers to enter the Hypercar class with road cars.

But the new iteration of the Valkyrie was developed under the subset of prototype regulations. “The AMR Pro is essentially a Le Mans prototype that someone can buy and use as a track car – it's a 1000hp, 1000kg car with LMP1 performance,” Carter said at the launch of the 2025 LMH programme.

“Basing the LMH on the AMR Pro offers a number of opportunities and means fewer compromises,” he added.

The 2025 Valkyrie LMH will also not be hybrid and will be powered exclusively by the naturally aspirated thermal V12 developed by Cosworth for the road car.