The Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar has returned to Silverstone for an important development test as Aston Martin prepares to explore the next stage of the car’s World Endurance Championship (WEC) programme.
The works Aston Martin THOR Team used the 3.66-mile Grand Prix circuit to evaluate a development version of the race car, with factory drivers Ross Gunn and Harry Tincknell sharing driving duties. The test focused on a range of technical changes designed to help the team understand where further performance could be extracted from the Valkyrie.
Silverstone was a particularly useful venue for the programme. As the home of British motorsport, it provided the team with an opportunity to gather circuit-specific information while also building knowledge ahead of the WEC’s return to Britain in 2027. The 6 Hours of Silverstone is scheduled for 23-25 April next year, marking the championship’s first British round since 2019.
The Valkyrie has already made progress during its first seasons of endurance racing. In WEC, the car secured its first double-points result at the 6 Hours of São Paulo, finishing sixth and ninth. In the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Gunn and Roman De Angelis were classified fifth after running second on the road, giving Valkyrie its sixth top-10 result from seven starts in the series.
Aston Martin’s endurance programme now believes it has a stronger understanding of the car’s characteristics after around 18 months of competition. That knowledge is allowing engineers to investigate changes to the underlying package rather than simply concentrating on extracting more from its existing configuration.
Developed from the road-going Valkyrie, the competition car combines a race-focused carbon-fibre chassis with a modified 6.5-litre V12 engine. The production engine can produce more than 1,000bhp and rev to 11,000rpm, although the racing version operates within the 500kW, or 680bhp, limit imposed by hypercar regulations.
The Silverstone running therefore represents more than preparation for a single race. It is part of Aston Martin’s longer-term effort to develop a car that can compete more effectively against manufacturers with several additional years of experience in top-level endurance racing.
For British fans, the significance is also growing. When the WEC returns to Silverstone in 2027, the Valkyrie will have the opportunity to race its home event in front of a crowd that has been waiting years to see Aston Martin compete at the highest level of endurance racing on British soil.
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