Tincknell: Aston Martin Valkyrie ‘will get there soon enough’
Harry Tincknell is confident that Aston Martin THOR Team ‘will get there soon enough’ with its new Valkyrie Hypercar, describing the prototype’s FIA World Endurance Championship bow in the Qatar 1812km earlier this year as ‘a victory’.
Bred from the Valkyrie production model – jointly penned by legendary Formula 1 designer, Adrian Newey – the competition version blends a race-optimised carbon-fibre chassis with a modified 6.5-litre, Cosworth-developed, V12 naturally-aspirated engine, endowing it with a unique, fan-pleasing howl.
Notwithstanding an intensive pre-season testing programme, the car’s first race was always going to be a sizeable learning curve – particularly with all of its Hypercar rivals boasting significantly more experience in the championship.
From a disappearing door on the #009 entry to a terminal transmission issue for the all-British-crewed #007, it was certainly a challenging debut – but the team’s drivers saw enough over the course of the ten-hour contest to be greatly encouraged by the Valkyrie’s potential.
“We learned an incredible amount through the ‘Prologue’ and race week,” asserted former European Le Mans Series champion and 24 Hours of Le Mans class-winner, Harry Tincknell. “Of course, we would have liked to get to the end with the #007 and have everything perfect, but that is not realistic in motor racing.
“Still, we saw enough to know we will get there soon enough. The positives are that during the race the car was competitively fast, and our pace was really strong as night fell. We knew ultimately the first event wasn’t about winning, but about learning, and in that sense we came away with a victory.”
Roman De Angelis had the honour of taking the chequered flag in the #009 car. The Canadian – IMSA GTD champion in 2022 – will contest a partial campaign with Aston Martin THOR Team in FIA WEC this year, and he shared Tincknell’s enthusiasm for the future of the project.
“The race in Qatar didn’t go perfectly, but it was a pretty special moment to cross the finish line for the first time in the Valkyrie programme,” De Angelis acknowledged. “It was also a special moment for the team to get a car home. We’ve learned a lot, and it’s a long programme with a long road ahead. I’m looking forward to the progression – it’s only up from here!”
“It was definitely one of those races where we didn’t really know what to expect going into it,” added #009 team-mate Alex Riberas. “We knew it was important to get a car home within 90 per cent of the winner’s finishing distance and we did that, so that was a big box ticked. There are a lot of things we discovered to work on ahead of the next round at Imola. I think we have shown we have an exciting road ahead of us.”
