After everything seemed to have fallen through, The Heart Of Racing have brought the Valkyrie back from Valhalla, and into the world of sportscar racing.

In 2025, the Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH will run both WEC and IMSA full time in an effort largely funded by online games store Steam founder Gabe Newell. 

For all of us sports car fanatics, it will be an extremely special moment years in the making when the car roars into life at the WEC’s season opener in Qatar, set to take place on the 28th of February. 

And roar it certainly will, for the car will go against the norm. Whereas every other LMH or LMDH car uses a V6 or V8 engine, Aston Martin opted for no less than 4 extra cylinders. V12’s are back in sportscar racing, and I for one cannot wait to hear that thing scream down the Mulsanne straight in June. 

At the time of writing however, there is a potential catch. Noise limits mean that there is a likelihood of a muffler being used, and ruining our dreams of an unhindered V12 running across the world. 

There is hope, however. After one fan expressed these concerns harboured by many on Reddit, Gabe Newell himself responded with three cryptic words.

“Working on it.”

All of this is great, but what of the on-track expectations? 2024’s debutants Lamborghini and Alpine showed opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to how to start your programme. Alpine steadily improved throughout the year, culminating in their 3rd place finish at Fuji while Lamborghini ended the year with the SC63’s very existence in doubt.

For Aston Martin though, it’s important to remember the field they are to be competing against. With the top six regularly filled out by Porsche, Toyota and Ferrari, and Alpine and BMW eyeing up the higher places for 2025, Aston should look for consistency. Top ten finishes should be their primary aim for 2025, as will be learning as much about their car as possible. 

And this is where things get interesting: I’d planned for this to be one of the last previews released across February, so imagine my surprise when just a few hours ago the livery and driver lineups were announced. We’d already known of Alex Riberas and Harry Ticnknell’s signings, but as of today the full picture is clear: Prototype talent comes in the form of Tom Gamble, who finished as runner up in the ELMS four years ago and will partner Tincknell in the no.007 WEC entry.

The final piece in Aston’s WEC puzzle comes in the form of Dane Marco Sorensen. At 34 years old he’s by far the most experienced man in the squad, but his long partnership with Aston speaks for itself. Not only a triple world champion with the british marque in WEC, two in GTE Pro and one in GTE AM, but in 2022 he scored a class win at Le Mans with a TF Sport Aston. He’ll partner Riberas in the no.009 entry.

Aston’s not content with running in just the World Endurance Championship. Starting at the 12 Hours of Sebring, they’ll also be fielding a single car entry in IMSA with former Aston Martin academy alumni Roman De Angelis and Heart of Racing veteran Ross Gun piloting the no.23 machine. I’m really excited to see how they’ll compare in an even more competitive GTP field in 2025. 

By all accounts a fascinating driver lineup, I’m personally really excited to see how this team performs in its debut year, and the driver lineup is a shrewd one. 

As pre-season unfolds we’ll no doubt get a better idea of what to expect from this highly anticipated team, but one thing must be asked of them:

Dear Aston, whatever you do this year, please don’t disappoint. 

thumbnail credit – pelican-actor, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons