24h Le Mans
For 10 years, the Aston Martin endurance saga has been rich with success, in competition - and of course in the movies. Let's go into detail...
It was in 2004 that the British marque's return began to take shape out from the initiative of David Richards, Prodrive head, and the Franco-Swiss gentleman-driver Frédéric Dor, already at the origin of the Ferrari 550 Maranello program lead by Care Racing Development. Ten years later, Aston Martin is in the running for both the LM GET Am driver and team titles in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the next-to-last round of which will take place Saturday, November 15th in Bahrain.
A return, a podium – In 2005, for its first participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Aston Martin DBR9 finished third in the GT1 class in the hands of Stéphane Sarrazin, Darren Turner and David Brabham. A result repeated in 2006, once again with Stéphane Sarrazin, this time with Stéphane Ortelli and Pedro Lamy.
A double victory – Aston Martin Racing won two years in a row in GT1. In 2007, Brabham and Turner raced along with Rickard Rydell (fifth overall), then with Antonio Garcia (13th overall) the following year.
The era of the prototypes – Then Aston Martin moved to LM P1 with a Lola coupe powered by the DBR9's engine. The car carried Gulf' oil company's sky blue and orange colours, three-time winner in Le Mans (1968-69-75), a partnership born in 2008 and still going strong today. Aston Martin Racing won the driver and team titles in the 2009 Le Mans Series, finished fourth in Le Mans in 2009 and sixth in 2010. In 2011, the Lola-Aston Martin coupe, in Kronos Racing's colours, allowed Vanina Ickx to achieve his best result at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with seventh place.
Return to LM GTE – After the failure of the AMR-One prototype, Aston Martin Racing returned to the GT class with the Vantage. Since 2012, Aston Martin has won an LM GTE Am driver title (in 2013 for Jamie Campbell-Walter and Stuart Hall), as well as 16 victories in the two LM GTE classes of the WEC, including the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans for the Danish trio David Heinemeier-Hansson, Kristian Poulsen and Christoffer Nygaard, one year after the tragic death of their fellow countryman, Allan Simonsen.
… And always, James Bond – Aston Martin Racing is of course perpetually linked to the saga of the most famous secret agent in the history of film, especially after British actor Daniel Craig took over the role in 2006 for "Casino Royale." From 2006 to 2011, the official Aston Martins boasted within their race numbers James Bond's famous 00 (the well-known license to kill becomes a kind of license to win!): in 2007 and 2008, two consecutive victories were won by the No. 008 and No. 009 DBR9s.
