Friday 1st April 2011

First Race For Le Mans Aston This Weekend

AMR-One LMP1 challenger to get first competitive outing at Paul Ricard

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Aston's new straight-six LMP1 Le Mans challenger, the AMR-One, gets its first competitive outing this weekend at Paul Ricard.

Well, we say competitive. Aston is actually billing the weekend as a 'test' race, from which we infer that the new car might not quite be up to speed yet.

Still, that's probably to be expected, as The AMR-One only first turned a wheel last month, and has been undergoing an extensive (if short) development process since then.

At the wheel of the Gulf-liveried Aston in the opening round of the Le Mans Series at Le Castellet will be Stefan Mücke (D), Harold Primat (CH) and Darren Turner (GB), who will get the first opportunity to test the 009 AMR-One under race conditions.

Aston Martin Racing team principal, George Howard-Chappell said: "We have been through a tough development phase since unveiling the car in late February. Since then we have performed a shakedown at Fen End and Snetterton and conducted a first test at Dijon-Prenois in France with more work being required to get ourselves up to a competitive position.

"Initial feedback from the drivers is very positive with reports of good stability, brake and mechanical feel. Paul Ricard will be our first real-world test, and we aim to learn as much as possible about the new car. This is the very start of a two year programme and we aim to become competitive as quickly as possible."

Good luck chaps; we look forward to cheering you on at La Sarthe in June.

[Oddball RS]

No comments from the drivers about grunt though?

[Red Firecracker]

It's currently sitting in the garage awaiting a new engine. It will not run in the first practice session. There have been reports of a few issues, but it is new, so to be expected.

[chazwozza]

Hope it all goes well and they gain a lot from the race

[DonkeyApple]

Straight 6 in an English car.

Lovely.

About time we swapped our baseball caps back for panamas.

[mark3man]

DonkeyApple said:

About time we swapped our baseball caps back for panamas.

Deerstalker or cloth cap, dear boy, it's only April !

[chazwozza]

mark3man said:

DonkeyApple said:

About time we swapped our baseball caps back for panamas.

Deerstalker or cloth cap, dear boy, it's only April !

[zebedee]

well, it has done a lap now - very slowly. That's all for today.

[DonkeyApple]

mark3man said:

Deerstalker or cloth cap, dear boy, it's only April !

But like any good Englishman in April I'm on the Riviera now the shooting season is behind us.

[A10ARF]

Lacking in looks compared to the coupe, but hope it will be faster with a proper winning chance against the dull sounding diesel brigade!

[zebedee]

A10ARF said:

Lacking in looks compared to the coupe, but hope it will be faster with a proper winning chance against the dull sounding diesel brigade!

I think you will be disappointed if rumours over the speed of the new Audi and Pug are anywhere near true. Aston ran reliably this morning but is severly lacking in mileage so don't expect anything of them this weekend.

[Bolognese]

Is there any videos of it in action on the interwebs? Cant find anything yet

[alancovkid]

didn't do very well in qualifying. 11th

will be a hard weekend for the team.

good luck for the race

alancovkid

[zebedee]

alancovkid said:

didn't do very well in qualifying. 11th

will be a hard weekend for the team.

good luck for the race

alancovkid

unsurprising with so little data and running, the engine is turned down quite a bit after initial problems and it looks rather evil on the handling front at the moment.

[alancovkid]

how do you know the engine has been turned down?

is that a guess, or an informed fact?

[zebedee]

alancovkid said:

how do you know the engine has been turned down?

is that a guess, or an informed fact?

very informed as it came from GH-C! - see www.dailysportscar.com

[Red Firecracker]

Indeed.

They are looking at this as an extended test session, especially as they are staying on for an extra day or so. I would expect to see a normal rotation of all three drivers during the race and then into test mode with extended stays in the garage. It sounds as if it is an evil handling beast at the moment so they have serious work to do before Spa and that all hinges on the engine staying together, hence they've turned it down.

[zebedee]

Was out in warm up, had a spin after the merest touch of kerb, ran in among the P2s in terms of pace. Turner and Mucke reckon it will be a different story at Spa once they have some data to take away.

[AlexS]

And the race is live on Motors TV from 1045 today.

[Barry Ashcroft]

WTF

[dienamic]

If I were driving that audi I'd go straight out the back of the pits, through the main gates and head home without stopping! Unbelievable.