Aston Martin gambles on low-key line-up for big Hypercar debut

Aston Martin has unveiled the drivers who will race its The Heart of Racing-run Valkyrie Hypercars in the IMSA SportsCar Championship and the World Endurance Championship in 2025.

Those choices may seem surprising, but should they really be called into question?

With the 2025 WEC season set to kick off in Qatar in a fortnight's time, there were still two empty slots in the Hypercar category. These have now been filled following the Aston Martin THOR (The Heart of Racing) announcement.

No big surprises, but no big names either. There will be six drivers involved in the Valkyrie programme, since the decision was taken to rely on duos in WEC, backed up in the long races - and therefore the Le Mans 24 Hours - by a third driver coming from IMSA.

Aston Martin's Valkyrie line-up

WEC #007 Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble (plus Ross Gunn for Le Mans 24 Hours)
WEC #009 Marco Sørensen, Alex Riberas (plus Roman De Angelis for Le Mans 24 Hours)
IMSA #23 Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis

"For anybody that's been involved in sportscar racing, to be running a car at the premier level with Aston Martin, and a car which is widely accepted as one of the most beautiful in the world - the only one that is the genuine progeny of a road car - is a real honour," said team principal Ian James. "To be entrusted with this programme is most definitely a career highlight."

It's hard to argue with him. But given that this is a tripartite project involving Aston Martin Racing, The Heart of Racing and Multimatic, who was responsible for recruitment?

"The Heart of Racing is responsible for the delivery of the sporting element of the programme," said Aston Martin's head of endurance motorsport Adam Carter. "But when you go and actually look through all of those drivers, they've all got connection to Aston Martin and to other elements in the programme."

But it's important to remember that without the financial backing of The Heart of Racing team, led by Ian James and behind which lies video game magnate Gabe Newell, this project would never have seen the light of day. Of the six drivers selected, all have already driven for The Heart of Racing and won races or even titles for the American team - apart from Harry Tincknell, a Multimatic development driver.

The leading names

"Harry was heavily involved in the development of the Valkyrie [road car], so we wanted to incorporate him early on into the test programme, plus he has other GTP experience [in a Porsche 963]," said James. "He very quickly identified himself as a good team player, and his track record speaks for itself."

Tincknell is a prototype regular. He has two class wins to his name at Le Mans, the most recent in 2020 in the GTE Pro class, already with Aston Martin. Driving the #007 car in the WEC, he will undoubtedly be the leader of the British team alongside Marco Sørensen (pictured above), who will be driving the #009 car.

Although Sørensen has never driven a prototype, he shone in single-seaters before turning his attention to GT racing when he joined Aston Martin in 2015. Since then, he has claimed three WEC titles with the brand, two in GTE Pro and one in GTE Am.

"He's among the most experienced and successful drivers to ever race for Aston Martin and he's waited a long time for his chance at the top class," said James. "Having worked with him, having seen his ability and how cool he is under pressure, I think he's a perfect fit for this programme."

The partners

Two recruits whose talent and ability to evolve a programme at the highest level is indisputable. What is more surprising is the identity of the other four, who mainly have made their names via GT racing. Tincknell will team up with the little-known Tom Gamble, the 2020 European Le Mans Series LMP3 champion and 2021 LMP2 runner-up, as the silver driver of the crew.

"I rate him very highly as a natural talent and he deserves a chance in the spotlight at the highest level of sportscar racing," explained James.

Surprised, we asked Adam Carter. "When he drove with Aston Martin in the past, he showed a level of maturity and capability in his talents, and he has been on the radar all along," he replied. "We tested him in the car and he showed very well. His feedback was very good and aligned with what we were expecting. So he's earned his seat purely on merit. He's given the opportunity and he's grasped it."

In the #009 car, Sørensen will share the wheel with Alex Riberas, who had already been announced. "Alex has been proving himself in GTD Pro in IMSA the past couple of years, is an established race winner in IMSA and WEC, and excelled throughout the whole of WEC with us last year," said James. "He's definitely part of the fabric of The Heart of Racing and deserves his seat."

The IMSA duo

At Le Mans, Ross Gunn will join the #007 car to form an all-British crew. The same role will be played by Canadian Roman de Angelis in the sister car.

But the pair's main programme will be in IMSA - starting from the second round of the season at Sebring in March - where they will be racing in a #23 Valkyrie with The Heart of Racing's signature blue livery.

"Ross has been with us for the past four years and has become, without doubt, one of the best GT drivers in the world," said James. "He proved it last year in the GTD Pro title race, just narrowly missing out. He's a team player, is naturally gifted and has a feel for a race car that not many drivers have.

"As for Roman, I first drove with him in 2018 and he's gone from strength to strength.

He's won the AMR Academy and the GTD championship, which is a unique achievement, and he's become an out-and-out performer. He's also a key ingredient in our sim programme in Phoenix."

A question of experience

So, the majority of the drivers selected by Aston Martin THOR therefore have a GT background and little or no experience behind the wheel of prototypes that generate great aerodynamic downforce.

"It's a very good point to raise," says Carter. "We've mixed the drivers throughout the testing period so that we can take reflection on that point and see how well they adapt in terms of those with the experience and those without.

"We set out with a view of who we thought could be in the driver line-ups and we've effectively made our choices by going and comparing against the relative references to actually decide on the final crews."

And while this choice may come as a surprise, it's worth looking at what the competition is doing, and in particular the benchmark teams.

While Toyota relies solely on drivers with extensive experience of aero downforce cars, Ferrari and Porsche have opted for a mix. Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet - to name but two - prove that adaptation is possible at Porsche.

It has to be said that these LMH (which the Valkyrie will sit among) or LMDh cars are much heavier, much less powerful and generate much less aero downforce than the previous-generation LMP1s, which were bodied F1 cars. Some even say this generation are big GTs.

Tincknell will, for sure, be a reference against which they will all be compared. Fast in GTs, will the others shine at the top of the endurance pyramid, especially with the pressure that brings? Only time will tell if Tom Gamble, Ross Gunn, Roman de Angelis and co are too soft to fight it out on track with Sébastien Buemi, Kévin Estre, Antonio Fuoco or Kevin Magnussen.

On paper, the match looks lopsided. It's up to them to surprise us and repay Ian James for the faith he has placed in them. They're all fulfilling a dream, but now it's up to them to live up to it...