What is Aston Martin up to?

[mjstallard]

Hmmm...I'm going to throw caution to the wind and make my predictions to be either Ant Davidson or Jenson Button behind the wheel of an Aston this year!

That car is gorgeous!

[Aslak Vind]

Hopefully it will be Anthony Davidson, however he is talking to Peugeot these days.

Jenson Button is highly overrated, as far as I am concerned.

[AX lover]

Am I correct when I say that the Charouz Racing System car has become one of the official Aston Martin Racing cars? Including their drivers?

If I remember correctly they had 2 B08/60's and sold one to Speedy Racing - Team Sebah. So they had one left and that one is transformed into this new 2009 Aston Martin spec and Aston Martin bought another new tub?

[JayBMS]

i knew they woundn't let me down,

Great driver line up aswell, looking forward to seeing them run

Think Karl my find his way in to a DBR9 at lemans, cant see him in the P1

[courageous]

Originally Posted by Aslak Vind

Jenson Button is highly overrated, as far as I am concerned.

I'll agree that Brundle and/or Button wouldn't be the fastest choice, but they would give even more press coverage (3rd car Brundle/Button/Coulthard would almost garuntee back page coverage in the UK mainstream press)

[Bentley03]

Personally, I would anticipate Button's smooth driving style to be ideal for endurance racing. Not the fastest? Quick enough I'd wager...........

[AstonGeoff]

Originally Posted by Bentley03

Personally, I would anticipate Button's smooth driving style to be ideal for endurance racing. Not the fastest? Quick enough I'd wager...........

I've often thought the same, but unless the Honda F1 sale fails then I can't imagine him being available. But DC..... Well we know he is available, how about the 3rd Aston being Red Bull sponsored and entered by Red Bull AMR, we all know that a team can only enter 2 cars, so the 3rd will have to have been entered under a different team name.

I would expect 2 Astons to get a LM entry with the 3rd on the reserves list, but who can tell with the ACO!

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Mal

I was thinking more of the potential 3rd Car for Le Mans.

Aaahhh Mal ..... If theres 3 Pugs , 3 Audis , and 3 Astons and 2 Pescarlo ..... doesnt leave much place for the rest of them in LMP1 , does it .

2 per team , like the rules say is plenty from one manufacturer , for me anyway .

[deggis]

Originally Posted by The Badger

From what I can gather , it is a re-worked B08 . But it probably is a 08 car as they have it already .

According to Autosport, no model name has yet published... why wouldn't they call it AMRsomething?

Originally Posted by AstonGeoff

I've often thought the same, but unless the Honda F1 sale fails then I can't imagine him being available. But DC..... Well we know he is available, how about the 3rd Aston being Red Bull sponsored and entered by Red Bull AMR, we all know that a team can only enter 2 cars, so the 3rd will have to have been entered under a different team name.

But it doesn't need to have different sponsor... Peugeot changed just one word in the team name.

I would expect 2 Astons to get a LM entry with the 3rd on the reserves list, but who can tell with the ACO!

Yes, surely giving the entry instead to Lavaggi or some Spyker team who won't be even able to start is more important in the name of variety.

[deggis]

Q & A with George Howard-Chappell
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73016

Word on Brabs and continuing to 2010 is "lets wait and see".

Also Autosport has these two pics, higher resolution somewhere? I can't find them from astonmartinracing.com.

[WMUCarGuy]

Originally Posted by Aslak Vind

That is not correct, none of the parties has said anything. As of yet it is nothing but a strong rumour.

They are on the official entry list...

[CTD]

Wow it looks really sleek from above!.

Originally Posted by Aslak Vind

That is not correct, none of the parties has said anything. As of yet it is nothing but a strong rumour.

Aslak do you read on the forum at Motorsporten.dk?
One of the Mechanics from Poulsen/Essex have confirmed it!

racingfan.dk skrev:
"Team Essex og Poulsen Motorsport stiller op til årets Le Mans...................
Dette er bekræftet fra en Mekaniker fra Teamet, kører bliver Casper Elgård og Kristian Poulsen og meget sandsynligt Sascha Massen, ha ha hvor er det sjovt at bringe sådan en nyhed inden offentliggørelsen, men hva fanden når der nu snakkes blandt mekanikerne så skal i da også vide det.......ja rent Steen Nielsen snak, ham savner vi nu til at snage, så her er en opfordring kom op på hesten Steen så vi kan få noget godt sladder......................................"

[WMUCarGuy]

Originally Posted by courageous

I'll agree that Brundle and/or Button wouldn't be the fastest choice, but they would give even more press coverage (3rd car Brundle/Button/Coulthard would almost garuntee back page coverage in the UK mainstream press)

But I don't think it'd give them a lineup to win, and winning would give them infinitely more marketing opportunities.

[JayBMS]

button would be smooth and look after the car no doubt, but endurance racing is another thing. dealing with traffic etc.

if i'd put this much effort i'd want proven enduro racers

[AX lover]

Originally Posted by deggis

Q & A with George Howard-Chappell
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73016

Word on Brabs and continuing to 2010 is "lets wait and see".

Also Autosport has these two pics, higher resolution somewhere? I can't find them from astonmartinracing.com.

Do you have larger pics?

[CTD]

Originally Posted by JayBMS

button would be smooth and look after the car no doubt, but endurance racing is another thing. dealing with traffic etc.

if i'd put this much effort i'd want proven enduro racers

From Honda F1, i believe he has some experience with traffic!. Except he usually gets overtaken, instead of overtake

[deggis]

Originally Posted by AX lover

Do you have larger pics?

No, as you see I was asking for bigger pics too. These (small pics) were at Autosport articles, I just uploaded them to imageshack since hotlinking from autosport.com does not work. Obviously these are all from some kind of press kit.

[deggis]

I found the first and only big pic (so far) in bigger resolution:

http://90right.files.wordpress.com/2...ans09-lmp1.jpg

[zac510]

Wonder what little colour tweaks they'll give them to distinguish between the cars?

[Aslak Vind]

Still, this studiopics all the splitters and stuff, looking forward to see her battledressed

[broadrun96]

Looks great but how clean is that compared to what the actual car will look like? And probably the front grill treatment as before to differentiate each car and maybe a stripe across the tip of the rear wing?

[deggis]

Rest of the pics in slightly bigger resolution, albeit with bad jpg compression:

http://www.evo.co.uk/news/evonews/23..._for_audi.html

[CTD]

Originally Posted by zac510

Wonder what little colour tweaks they'll give them to distinguish between the cars?

Could be nice if they did like Porsche did on the 917! (like the Le Mans Movie)

[dazbaz_99]

Now that's how a racing car should look. Utterly beautiful machine!! Having Aston in the LMS will more than make up for the Audi's dropping out.

[Jamesy-18]

Very very happy about this announcement. I know it's been rumoured for a while, but still, outta the blue. I was positively shocked with suprise this morning when i logged on to a sportscar site an saw this! Anyway, nothertheless, great news, baring disaster like in 08, i should be at the LMS round of Silverstone this year.