Aston Martin Launch new F1 car

[Jon39]

Beckson said:

Did they officially exit endurance racing?

Yes, the factory run team (Prodrive do the work on behalf of AML) is withdrawing. Not sure if they have stopped already, because the annual WEC season now ends with Le Mans 24 Hours as the last event.

Customer teams will continue to be supported, so GT3 and GT4 Vantages will still be seen racing.
Some of the factory drivers are moving to customer teams.

[Nbgring]

Jon39 said:

Yes, the factory run team (Prodrive do the work on behalf of AML) is withdrawing. Not sure if they have stopped already, because the annual WEC season now ends with Le Mans 24 Hours as the last event.

Customer teams will continue to be supported, so GT3 and GT4 Vantages will still be seen racing.
Some of the factory drivers are moving to customer teams.

The factory Team won both drivers and manufacturers´ world championships in Bahrain - which was the final race of the 2020 season. Yes, they stopped and will not continue this 2021 season.

There is a trend to stop factory participation in GT racing. Currently all marques have announced not to develop a successor GTE car. IMSA is replacing the GTE class with a GT3 class. For a limited time the existing GTE cars will be used mainly by customer teams, like TF-Sport or Paul Dalla Lana.

[Beckson]

Seems like combining GT3 and GTE would be smart anyway.

[Jon39]

Beckson said:

Seems like combining GT3 and GTE would be smart anyway.

An interesting point, because the VH Vantages were V12 = GT3 and V8 = GTE (and GT4).

With the new cars, I suppose GTE and GT3 both have the ssme V8 engine.

[Nbgring]

Beckson said:

Seems like combining GT3 and GTE would be smart anyway.

Sorry, but no way!
The path to GTE almost killed GT racing because it is so expensive.
The GTE cars cost twice the money (vs. GT3) because every single part of the car is different from the road car.
And they have no facilitating aids like ABS or advanced traction and stability control - which make the cars extremely difficult to drive for the amateurs / gentleman racers in the cars of TF-Sport or Paul Dalla Lana. (and those are the guys who make LeMans survive)
A GTE is more a prototype - even engines are relocated (yes, the Porsche 911 GTE is a mid-engine-car) and they generate huge losses for the manufacturers.
(I believe that AMR had built like 7 GTE cars per life cycle?)
In contrast the successful GT3 and GT4 are the future - simply due to the huge numbers of sales to private race teams this is an attractive business and the way to go. (I am convinced that Audi, Mercedes and Porsche each built way beyond 100 GT3 cars and even more GT4s!)

[Minglar]

The latest edition of Vantage Magazine arrived today and, apologies if this is old news, it would appear that there will be a new variant of the New Vantage available, which looks very similar to the F1 Safety Car released last week. The Vantage F1 Edition, available as coupé or Roadster, and U.K. prices start at £135,900. I must say I think it looks pretty good!

Best Regards

Minglar

[Jon39]

Nbgring said:

Sorry, but no way!
The path to GTE almost killed GT racing, because it is so expensive.

Thank you Theo, an interesting insight.

I was surprised to learn some time ago, that Prodrive made the (VH type) GTE cars last a long time.

Quite different from Formual One (money no object, until occasionally an administrator knocks on the door), where they seem to want brand new cars every year. To many fans, we often cannot see any difference, between this years car and last years. Even the two team cars are difficult to tell apart, because the competition numbers are now almost invisible, hidden amongst the advertising.

I did know that few VH Vantage GTE cars had been built, but did not know it was probably only seven. Cannot remember when they first raced, but most of those cars must have been raced for many years. Quite 'green' perhaps in that respect, for those who are obsessed.

[Speedraser]

Yes, 7 total GTE cars, the last of which is one of the trio of final VH Vantages made. Also, 47 GT3 and 108 GT4 cars made (including those in this final 3), according to:
https://www.thedrive.com/news/37779/you-can-buy-th...

Does anyone know if someone bought them? I'm not usually that big on special editions, but I do wish I had the cash for these!

Edited by Speedraser on Thursday 11th March 05:12