There is a strange tension in being a guest of a car manufacturer over a race weekend when it's having a completely dire time of it. It's like going to your school mate's house when you're 12 and hearing your buddy row with his mum. Most uncomfortable. After qualifying on Thursday night it seemed as though this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans was going to be kind to Aston Martin, its #95 Vantage GTE emphatically on pole in the GTE Pro class.
Within 30 minutes of the start of the race, however, it was pretty clear that the ACO's Balance of Performance adjustment between qualifying and the green flag had completely stiffed the team out of all contention. The #95 car sunk down the order while the sister #97 machine made no forward progress at all. From having the fastest GTE car on the grid a day or two ago, Aston Martin Racing now had pretty much the slowest.
Still, only 23 and a half hours to go. The ACO had reduced Aston's maximum permitted boost pressure in an effort to level the playing field in the class, but succeeded only in castrating the pair. To claw back a little straight-line speed Aston's engineers trimmed some aero away from each car. Ordinarily that would be fine, but this adjustment simply didn't work with the team's limited tyre compounds (nominated 18 months previously) and the cars were a handful to drive. Both ended up in the tyre barriers, one terminally.
Aston boss Andy Palmer called the BoP recalculation 'unfathomable'. But while there was precious little to cheer about on circuit, Palmer's announcement on the Friday before the race that the Valkyrie will go racing at Le Mans in 2021 did at least give him and the rest of us something to smile about. Today's LMP1 category is due to be replaced by a new hypercars class and Aston Martin will campaign at least two of its Adrian Newey-penned Valkyries both at Le Mans and in the World Endurance Championship. Toyota has since confirmed it'll be there as well, while smaller outfits such as Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus and ByKolles Racing seem to be up for a spot of giant-killing.
I can't wait. "We wanted to see cars that are recognisably road-going machines racing in the top class at Le Mans once again," said Palmer. "Formula One is where teams and manufacturers can demonstrate their absolute speed, but Le Mans is where we'll prove our durability."
What might temper his enthusiasm for the new category, particularly following a weekend to forget on circuit, is that the hypercar class will be subject to Balance of Performance just as GTE is today. Given that the Valkyrie has such extreme aerodynamic properties for a car that can wear number plates, it's a pretty sure bet the ACO will need to find a way to hobble it somewhat. Could it one day prove to be the case that the racing Valkyries are actually slower around a lap than the road-legal versions?
Aston Martin confirmed to me it will continue to race in the GTE categories. I wonder, then, by whom the the Valkyries will actually be run. Perhaps Prodrive (under the Aston Martin Racing banner) will be responsible for the Vantage GTEs and Red Bull itself, Aston's collaborator on the Valkyrie project, will campaign the hypercars. Or maybe it'll be some combination of the two, dividing the cars between outfits just as Ford did with its GT programme.
But here's the fun bit. Who do we think will drive the Valkyries? In guys like Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen, Maxime Martin, Darren Turner and Johnny Adam, Aston has a number of the world's best GT drivers on its books. One or two might well be promoted, but with the GTE programme ongoing most will surely stay put. When the LMP1 era reaches its conclusion there'll be a handful of A-list endurance racers looking for a new ride. Toyota will most probably roll their existing hot shoes into its new hypercar programme, but the likes of Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer and Bruno Senna might suddenly become available. I suspect Aston will be sniffing around.
Now how about this for a spot of wild speculation... Through its tie-in with Red Bull, Aston Martin has a close association with a couple of other drivers. Might Red Bull F1 jockeys Pierre Gasly and Max Verstappen be wheeled out for the Le Mans weekend? There isn't a calendar clash and by strapping Verstappen - the world's most exciting young driver - into your car, you pretty much guarantee you'll have the headlines all to yourself.
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