Aston Martin Shows Le Mans Spirit before Race Even Starts
If Aston Martin achieves a win with car no. 95, history will be made.
Despite the light-hearted video shown above, the Aston Martin team is facing a real-world challenge leading into this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Aston Martin’s effort this year has had a rough start before it even began. One of two cars suffered irreparable damage during testing according to Racer.com, meaning the AMR team had to build an all-new No. 95 Vantage. Astonishingly, the new car was built in just 6 days, making it officially the newest car to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans for this year. Thankfully the new car has been scrutineered prior to the race.
Balance of performance (BoP) changes for the GTE Pro class have at least been one benefit to Aston Martin before the race. Another report from Racer.com shows Aston Martin has been allowed to run more boost across the rev range of its engine, and an increase in fuel capacity by an entire four liters. Both pretty significant changes, which will pan out to their benefit in race strategy, even if overall speed isn’t in their favor. The Vantage had shown to be a bit behind in speed compared with other front-runners in GTE Pro, such as Chevrolet’s pair of Corvettes, and Ford’s quartet of GTs.
Overall, Aston Martin will be up against 15 other GTE Pro entries, and 13 GTE Am entries. All while keeping an eye on the much faster LMP cars, which currently have 30 cars entered in total between LMP1 and LMP2 classes. With a 60 car field starting, it’ll be a busy time behind the wheel throughout all hours of the race. A handy spotters guide for the full field of cars and drivers can be found here.
For those looking to catch the action at the Circuit de la Sarth, you have a few options. Cable subscribers will be able to catch all 24 hours on the Velocity network, and another option includes Motor Trend‘s website and On Demand app. The FiA will have live timing and scoring on their WEC website and Radio LeMans will have their full-race broadcast for those just wishing to listen in.
Join the 6SpeedOnline forums now!
