ASTON MARTIN RACING (GBR)

Owner: David Richards
Team Principal: John Gaw
Base: Banbury (GB)
www.astonmartinracing.com

2015 FIA WEC results :
Silverstone 6 Hours: 12th Nygaard/Sorensen/Thiim (DAN/DAN/DAN) no. 95 Aston Martin Vantage (4th LM GTE Pro), 13th Turner/Mücke (GBR/ALL/), No. 97 Aston Martin Vintage V8 (5th LM GTE Pro); 14th MacDowal/Rees/Stanaway (GBR/BRE/NZ). No..99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage (6th LM GTE Pro)
Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours: 21st Nygaard/Sorensen/Thiim (DAN/DAN/DAN) no. 95 Aston Martin Vantage (6th LM GTE Pro), 20th Turner/Mücke (GBR/ALL/), No. 97 Aston Martin Vintage V8 (5th LM GTE Pro); 16th MacDowal/Rees/Stanaway (GBR/BRE/NZ). No. 99 Aston Martin V8 Vantage (1st LM GTE Pro)

     The history of Aston Martin’s involvement in endurance is nearly as old as the history of the make itself. Its first Le Mans appearance was in 1928. Since then despite 33 starts it has won outright only once (1959 with Shelby and Salvadori). Prodrive is behind the official entry of the manufacturer (2009 Le Mans Series Champion with the LM P1 with a Lola chassis). This company was founded in 1984 by David Richards (former world rally champion co-driver with Ari Vatanen) and Ian Parry; it raced Porsche 911s, MG Metros and BMW M3s in rallies. Its partnership with Subaru began in 1990 and led to 2 manufacturers’ world titles (1995, 96) plus drivers‘ title by the late Colin McRae and Richard Burns and Peter Solberg. Prodrive has represented BMW, Alfa Romeo and Ford in touring car racing winning several BTCC titles. It was also involved in F1 with BAR Honda. The company launched its GT attack in 2001 developing the Ferrari F550 Maranello at the request of rally driver Frédéric Dor, a faithful client of David Richards. Former Lotus technical director George Howard-Chappell was entrusted with the project. After that Prodrive began developing the Aston Martin DBR9s hoping to pull off the same sporting and financial coup as with the Ferrari. It achieved its objective as Aston Martin made a stunning début in 2005 by winning the GT1 category in the Sebring 12 Hours (Brabham-Ortelli-Turner finishing 4th overall) before coming back to Le Mans after 16 years’ absence.

     In 2007, the British make won the GT1 category in the Sarthe with Brabham-Rydell-Turner and finished 5th overall. In 2008, the car repeated its success in Gulf colours (Brabham-Turner-Garcia) the same year as the LM P1 Lola-Aston Martin made its debut (9th). In 2009, the team was back in force with the Lola powered by the V12 engine from the DBR9, and its reward on the 50th anniversary of the make’s outright win was an excellent 4th place overall thanks to Charouz-Mücke-Enge even if the car was unable to match the pace of the diesels. The same crew triumphed in the Le Mans Series after winning in Barcelona and at the Nürburgring. The Lola-Astons were back in 2010 as part of a limited programme (2nd in Sebring) and 3 cars were entered for Le Mans (2 works, 1 private). Sixth place was the best result (Fernandez-Mücke-Primat).

 

     For 2011 Aston Martin developed a new LM P1 project baptized AMR ONE. Unlike Audi and Peugeot it opted for an open car with a straight-6 engine, one of which was supposed to be entered for the ILMC with Mücke and Turner as drivers and a second in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Aston Martin fell behind in preparation and did not race in the Sebring 12 Hours or the Spa 1000 km. The team made a brief appearance at Le Castellet and arrived at Le Mans with two cars that were barely finished. Overall it was a disaster as the AMR ONEs were as slow as they were unreliable. The first retired after 25 minutes (engine) and it was the same story for the second after 4 hours (most of which was spent in its pit). Aston Martin canned the project.

     In 2012 Aston continued in endurance in LM GTE in which it shone between 2005 and 2008 with wins at Sebring and Le Mans. The V8 Vantage was given an in-depth revision and no. 97 (Mücke-Turner-Fernandez) was entered in LM GTE Pro for the whole season as well as some rounds of the ALMS. In the World Endurance Championship the car showed that in terms of sheer speed it had nothing to envy its rivals, and although it was among the front-runners it failed to achieve any telling results. At Sebring, a wheel problem dropped it back and at Spa the gearbox let it down. In the ALMS it was again very quick, but didn’t score any wins. It proved, however, that at Le Mans the Aston Martin would again be a car to be reckoned with. Only a singleton Vantage was entered in GTE Pro and it finished in the top 3 after putting on a great performance. Overall, 2012 was a good year in endurance for the English make with six top-3 finishes, three pole positions, a victory in Shanghai and second place in the LM GTE Pro classification.

     Encouraged by this result Aston Martin decided to increase its investment in racing for 2013, the year of its centenary, and was aiming for another victory at Le Mans as well as the world title in GTE Pro. Two evolutions of the GTE Vantage with a lower centre of gravity, improved rear-end stability, a more rigid chassis, optimised suspension geometry plus a slimming cure were entered for the whole FIA World Endurance Championship (nos 97 and 99) with a third car to provide back-up in the Sarthe (no. 98). In addition, the team beefed up its driver line-ups with the arrival of Bruno Senna, Frédéric Makowiecki and Pedro Lamy. The seaon got off to a great start with Turner-Mücke-Senna winning the first round on the Silverstone circuit and finishing second at Spa. At Le Mans the team looked on course for victory despite intense pressure from the Porsches, but lost the lead on Sunday morning when Makowiecki went off. The surviving Aston of Turner-Mücke-Dumbreck finished third, a lap behind the winners after a very indecisive, thrilling race. Aston took its revenge on Porsche in the latter part of the championship winning at Austin, Fuji and Shanghai. In the final round on the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain the British firm was in with a chance of victory in the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships. Both cars retired dashing Aston’s hopes and handing the titles to Ferrari.

 

     

     The team was no luckier with its singleton entry for the Daytona 24 Hours in January 2014. The car finished way down the field in 44th place beaten by the Porsches, Ferraris and Corvettes. This disastrous result was caused by a very unfavourable balance of performance and a power steering problem. The same year Aston Martin teamed up with Bamboo Engineering in LM GTE Pro, which took part in the WTCC from 2010 to 2013 in Chevrolets. In no. 99 was Canadian of Hong Kong origin Darryl O’Young, Brit John McDowall, two of Bamboo Engineering’s regulars, and Brazilian Fernando Rees completing this line-up. No 97 spearheaded Aston Martin’s attack with Turner-Mücke-Senna at the wheel. At Silverstone where Senna was absent the Astons proved competitive and no. 97 finished third. At Spa the British cars made a stunning start to the race but faded towards the end. David Richard’s team arrived at Le Mans determined to seek revenge after its 2013 setback with its Vantage V8s. However, only one car survived finishing 35th overall and sixth in GTE Pro, a result that didn’t do justice to the English make’s stunning performance in the race. The English cars spearheaded by no. 97 were in the mix, and the latter had an incredible on-going nose-to-tail battle with the winning Ferrari until the power-assisted steering went on the blink dashing its chances of victory. Despite wins in Austin and Sao Paulo Aston Martin’s season ended on a low note even though the Vantage V8 was the quickest GT in the field. 

  For 2015, the Aston’s air restrictor diameter was increased by 0.8 mm with the intention of boosting power output. David Richard’s team was also the only one to enter three cars in LM GTE Pro: #95 with a trio of Danes (Nygaard/Sorensen/Thiim) run by the Young Driver squad, and #97 and #99 with the team’s regulars. At  Silverstone the cars finished in fourth, fifth and sixth places. Then in Belgium, on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, it all came good for Aston Martin with #99 in the hands of the least-experienced trio (MacDowall/Rees/Stanaway) who drove an impeccable race after setting pole, clinching victory. Spa was to prove a false dawn as, with the exception of the final round in Bahrain, the remainder of the 2015 season reflected the opening race of the campaign. Retiring just once, the V8 Vantage certainly showed its reliability but rarely managed to make an impression on the leading positions, boasting just one third-place finish after Spa. Pure speed was not the issue either as the Vantage was the quickest LM GTE Pro entry in qualifying at half of the season’s races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, without managing to get it all together when it mattered most.

     The start of the 2016 season has seen a mixed bag of fortunes for the Vantage, which has been modified to comply with new LM GTE Pro regulations, and is now fitted with Dunlop tyres. With its reshuffled driver line-ups (Stefan Mücke having left to join Ford), Aston Martin Racing has managed two class podium finishes at Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. In the UK, Thiim/Sørensen/Turner (#95) climbed from their initial 5th place on the grid to 3rd, while the #97 retired with engine failure. The roles were reversed in Belgium, however, as Stanaway/Rees/Adam clinched 3rd while the sister car’s race was ended by a crash. Fortunately, driver Nicki Thiim escaped without serious injury.  At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Aston Martin Racing will once again rank as an outsider, especially as this year the British team will be fielding just the two cars entered for the FIA WEC campaign.

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