[WEC] Aston Martin Hypercar Discussion

[broadrun96]

Uhoh, are we looking at facing the Stroll family racing in sportscars now as well? Racing Pointe Aston Martin anyone? Sweet pink livery on the Astons should be exquisite right?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Uhoh, are we looking at facing the Stroll family racing in sportscars now as well? Racing Pointe Aston Martin anyone? Sweet pink livery on the Astons should be exquisite right?

Even the talk of such a thing has sent stock prices higher. Couldn't be bad, could it?

[hondafan37]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Uhoh, are we looking at facing the Stroll family racing in sportscars now as well? Racing Pointe Aston Martin anyone? Sweet pink livery on the Astons should be exquisite right?

The pink livery was already in Force India before the arrival of Stroll and continues with his arrival which may or may not be in the Aston Martin.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by hondafan37

The pink livery was already in Force India before the arrival of Stroll and continues with his arrival which may or may not be in the Aston Martin.

I am aware, it was the change in sponsorship from Mallya's own companies to an actual sponsor when Sahara and he both had rounds of challenges in court and board rooms. It was not serious request to change the livery

[S griffin]

Funnily enough Force India came close to a partnership (or was it a buyout) with Aston Martin back in 2015

[deggis]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Uhoh, are we looking at facing the Stroll family racing in sportscars now as well? Racing Pointe Aston Martin anyone? Sweet pink livery on the Astons should be exquisite right?

What am I supposed to be looking at on that page? It goes to the live coverage page.

[chernaudi]

In short, Lawrence Stroll is looking to become a significant stakeholder in Aston Martin. One thing that may happen is Racing Point gaining AMR branding for their F1 team, or maybe a WEC LMP1/LMH program.

[TF110]

I wouldn't read too far into it yet. We'll see what happens if this deal even proceeds.

[TF110]

Caught this at the bottom of a dsc article

DAN SAYERS LEAVES AMR

...Aston Martin Racing’s Technical Director Dan Sayers revealed that he has left AMR for a new role as Head of Technical Operations at Red Bull Advanced Technologies, Bahrain his last event with AMR having already, officially left the company.

Whilst tight-lipped about the specifics of his new role it is clear that it involves a significant level of responsibility for the Aston Martin Valkyrie project, apparently in both ‘road’ and Le Mans HyperCar race versions.

If he's leaving AMR as technical director to head up Technical Operations at RBAT and that means he's doing big work for the Valkyrie, what does this say about the hypercar lmp project? Is it more Red Bull than Aston Martin?

[chernaudi]

Well, Adrian Newey designed both the road and race versions of the Valkyrie, and he's firmly entrenched with RBR even though he's supposedly semi-retired. I think that says a lot about RBR's involvement with the program.

Or AMR have farmed him out to RBR to have a more direct role in that side of the program.

We also have to remember that it seems like AMR are treating the LMP Hypercar and GT programs as almost totally separate programs. Not just are Multimatic running the Hypercar program while Prodrive still does the GT stuff. Also reflective in sponsor deals, such as the Hypercar program being sponsored by Mobil as lubricants supplier and GTE being sponsored by Total. Not to mention that AMR is one of the few GT programs period that doesn't use Multimatic shocks/dampers, with the GTE cars running Ohlins shocks.

[Purist]

I don't know how many of you have seen this. It came up via te Mulsanne's Corner Facebook goup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJcb...BivXHto9LrQ2GQ

[carbsmith]

The hypercar market is at the point where I feel like they may as well just let them run slightly modified road cars unrestricted. It's not like the old GT1 days where you went from a Skyline to a McLaren F1 to a TS020 and needed some vague basis of a half-level playing ground, the road cars now have gotten completely stupid without any race program involved. You can't even throw out the usual BoP excuses because the manufacturers are all trying to one up each other with a new car every couple years anyways.

[joeb]

They posted a short clip on twitter of their F1 drivers getting a chance to test the hypercar.

https://twitter.com/AndyatAston/stat...782541824?s=20

[DistortedSmile]

Dagys says the Valkyrie program might be about to get cancelled.https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...ther-jeopardy/

[GT6]

Well everything crossed in hope the program continues

[chernaudi]

Pruett from Racer also saying that the program will likely be cancelled. If so, DPI and LMP1 alignment can't come soon enough. ACO also may as well just continue with LMP1 as it was in '18/19. Probably won't make a lick of difference what they do short term anyways.

I wouldn't be surprised if Stroll's arrival as an investor in AM and him prioritizing his and his son's efforts in F1 as team owner and driver have anything to do with this.

Again, the ACO screwed themselves by placing OEM money over the overall health of the top class.

[TF110]

I think the ACO saying dpi 2.0 can race is the reason. The Valkyrie is already an expensive car, an expensive program. So I imagine the hypercar lmp project would add to that. And the car isn't as fast as what they claim it to be so it wouldn't be on pace of current lmp2 like they claim. At least not without the full 1000+hp imo.

Why spend more money when there's potential to 'brand' a cost capped lmp2? This is the same thing Peugeot is considering and waiting for the new rules to come out at Sebring. I said this before, but Toyota looks to be screwed over, but they probably don't mind because they'd prefer to make their own car from scratch anyway.

[Mike E]

Great, now they can scrap the 1100kg minimum weight and stay ahead of LMP2.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Great, now they can scrap the 1100kg minimum weight and stay ahead of LMP2.

I hope so. There's no reason for the cars to be that heavy. They aren't "GT's". We'll see what LMDh has in store.

[Mike E]

Ironic if the hypercar rules came about because of Aston wanting to run a road car and then Aston pulls out before it even begins.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Mike E

Ironic if the hypercar rules came about because of Aston wanting to run a road car and then Aston pulls out before it even begins.

It looks that way. Who else really asked to run their road hypercar? I know many were saying to combine the rules between imsa and wec but who said "lets run a road car"? I can see stylized prototypes but only Aston Martin was a taker or pusher for using something like the Valkyrie. McLaren was just a rumor and they're the only other party I can recall being in the news about a hypercar.

[Anyopenroad]

Originally Posted by TF110

I think the ACO saying dpi 2.0 can race is the reason.

I'd suggest it's a convenient excuse rather than a legitimate reason.

I never believed there would be a Valkyrie at Silverstone in September. Aston Martin has been a basket case for a while and the WEC project was just another flight of fancy by a blowhard CEO who hasn't delivered on any of his wild promises.

The ACO has disgraced themselves with the Hypercar saga, prostrating themselves at the feet of manufacturers while neglecting a potentially strong privateer field and GTE, the one class where manufacturers do want to play.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

I'd suggest it's a convenient excuse rather than a legitimate reason.

I never believed there would be a Valkyrie at Silverstone in September. Aston Martin has been a basket case for a while and the WEC project was just another flight of fancy by a blowhard CEO who hasn't delivered on any of his wild promises.

The ACO has disgraced themselves with the Hypercar saga, prostrating themselves at the feet of manufacturers while neglecting a potentially strong privateer field and GTE, the one class where manufacturers do want to play.

Not that many. You have really 2 fully committed and 2 playing in their local sandbox. And a yacht racing club. You have as many committed to the Hypercar ranks so it's not like they are tearing down the doors to get in to GTE either.

[Anyopenroad]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

You have as many committed to the Hypercar ranks so it's not like they are tearing down the doors to get in to GTE either.

That's after several years when ACO have made it perfectly clear that all they really cared about was LMP1.

GTE makes sense because it is a showcase for the one type of motor racing which manufacturers are fully committed to: selling GT3s to customers.

Go back to 2017, let Toyota have their solo Le Mans win then announce that GTE would be the World Championship class and LMP would become privateer pro (LMP1) and pro-am (LMP2). I reckon you could add 2-3 more GTE makes right away.

But we've been over this and I'm just repeating myself. Aston in Hypercar always looked like a fantasy given the state of the company. ACO bought it because they were pathetically desperate to get manufacturers in LMP1 despite it being perfectly clear that major car makers are no longer interested in factory prototype programmes.

[Gingers4Justice]

At the end of the day, I really can’t believe Andy Palmer has failed to deliver on a wild promise. Who saw that coming?