DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Aston Martin Valkyrie has completed what it called a “comprehensive test” of updates at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit this week, in preparation for further developing the car into the 2027 season. Ross Gunn and Harry Tincknell were behind the wheel for the test.
Per the team, Aston Martin THOR assessed a wide range of technical items under development during the day’s running, gaining valuable data, as the team evaluates the future performance direction of the unique and pioneering Valkyrie Hypercar.
“This was a significant day for Valkyrie,” said Aston Martin THOR Team Principal Ian James. “Some of the developments we tried today will fuel our thinking as we consider the technical direction we go next with Valkyrie. We have been able to evaluate lots of areas of performance on the car, so Silverstone has proved an interesting place to challenge ideas. There’s more to come, and I think it gives us reasons to be excited about what might be next for Valkyrie.”
“We’ve been happy with Valkyrie’s performance characteristics in the first two seasons of competition,” added Aston Martin’s Head of Endurance Motorsport, Adam Carter. “We’ve repeatedly said that we’ve entered an arena with a high level of formidable adversaries that are also several years further down the development track than us.
“So, we are now beginning to explore new areas of performance that we may gain through developing the base car, now that we understand its characteristics that much better after 18 months of racing it. We’re right at the beginning of that journey and this was a useful and informative start to that development process.”
The Valkyrie is in its second year of competition across both the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. With the Aston Martin THOR Team, the team has a best finish of second at last year’s Motul Petit Le Mans. The car also recently finished second on the road at the Motul SportsCar Endurance Grand Prix at Road America earlier this month, though fell to fifth upon a post-race time penalty assessed.
Aston Martin’s full release is linked here.
Photo Courtesy of Aston Martin