Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar Debuts at COTA in WEC 2025
Aston Martin brings the spectacular new Valkyrie hypercar to the Circuit of the Americas this weekend, marking its WEC debut at COTA as the ultra-luxury performance brand celebrates 75 years in the Americas in 2025. The British hypercar headline acts at Lone Star Le Mans, a six-hour round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. It showcases the road-to-race DNA that defines Aston Martin’s endurance racing programme.
The works Aston Martin THOR Team races Valkyrie as the marque’s first Le Mans Hypercar. It remains the only car in WEC’s premier class derived from a road-legal hypercar, underlining the link between the Valkyrie production car and top-tier endurance racing. Fans in North America are already familiar with the machine, as it is the only LMH to compete in both the FIA WEC and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It has taken top-ten finishes at every US outing, including an encouraging sixth at Road America for the US-based THOR entry.
Valkyrie’s form in WEC continues to build against seven leading endurance sportscar manufacturers. In July at the Rolex 6 Hours of Sao Paul, the car delivered its best combined qualifying result to date, placing 1st and 112th, and then ran deep inside the top ten early in the race. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, both Valkyries completed their maiden around-the-clock challenge without issue, finishing 12th and 14th, as the UK-based WEC arm of Aston Martin THOR recorded the programme’s first Manufacturer’s World Championship points in the Hypercar Class.
The British LMH made its global debut at the Qatar 1812km in February and has since demonstrated strong reliability, recording 14 finishes from 15 starts across all competitions. That consistency underpins Aston Martin’s push for results at COTA and strengthens momentum in the FIA WEC title fight.
Aston Martin THOR fields its regular WEC line-ups for Lone Star Le Mans. Car #007 pairs Tom Gamble (GBR) with Harry Tincknell (GBR). Car #009 partners Alex Riberas (ESP) with Marco Sørensen (DEN). The driver roster combines youthful speed with a proven endurance racing pedigree to maximise race craft, tyre management, and strategy across six demanding hours at COTA.
Developed from the Valkyrie production car by Aston Martin and THOR, the competition version combines a race-optimised carbon fibre chassis with a modified 6.5-litre V12 that revs to 11,000 rpm. The engine delivers over 1,000 bhp in standard form, yet WEC hypercar regulations cap output at 500 kW, equivalent to 680 bhp. This specification preserves the car’s character while striking a balance between performance and class.
Tom Gamble, driver #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “This will be my first time racing at COTA, so I’m really looking forward to going there and discovering the circuit. We’ve improved every time we have raced with Valkyrie, and I’m very excited to see how we get on in Austin. Hopefully we can get ourselves into the top 10 this weekend, which would represent a great result for the programme.”
Harry Tincknell, driver #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “I’m looking forward to COTA. It’s hopefully a track that suits us more than Sao Paulo. They’ve got some big, long straights in Austin, and we were very quick in Sector 1 and Sector 3 in Brazil. That race was another step forward for us, as we were just 0.05 seconds off Hyperpole, and that is a good target for us to achieve this weekend. We are still learning about our tyre strategies, and this is also a good focus for us. Coming off the summer break, the team is feeling fresh and positive. It will be super-hot, so we need to do our best to keep our tyres cool, keep our heads cool, and ourselves cool because it will be a tough event.”
Alex Riberas, driver #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “I’m extremely excited to go back to Austin, which used to be my home town for a couple of years, so for me personally it feels like going back home. Regarding COTA, it is probably my favourite track in the entire world, so I’m also very excited about that. We have had plenty of success there in the past, and, of course, last year we won our first WEC race with the Heart of Racing in the LMGT3 category. So, with it being a home race for us, and with the success we’ve had there before and with how much we improved the car in Brazil, I think everybody is just very enthusiastic and pumped about Austin. It cannot come soon enough.”
Marco Sørensen, driver #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie: “After strong results in Sao Paulo and Le Mans, coming into the Lone Star Le Mans, we’re determined to keep that momentum rolling. It’s a track with its own unique challenges - fast-flowing sections, big braking zones, and relentless heat. The team has been operating at a high level all season, and if we stay sharp and execute, there’s no reason we can’t be fighting for a result there.”
Ian James, Team Principal, Aston Martin THOR Team: “We arrive at our home race in WEC with a lot of optimism. I say this a lot, but the focus within the programme is about incremental progress and using what we learn to build a more competitive package. We’ve been testing since the last race, and the understanding we gain from each new outing with the car gives us more reason to believe we are heading in the right direction. Last year’s event marked the first victory for THOR in WEC, and it would be nice to get a top ten finish in the Hypercar Class there this year. To achieve that, we need to execute and perform to the maximum, and that is the target this weekend.”
Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport: “Valkyrie is beginning to show the world glimpses of the potential we believe it is capable of, but we are still in the early days of this programme. Our understanding of the car has increased exponentially since its debut in Qatar, and there were occasions during the most recent race in Brazil where the car demonstrated its capability to compete for points positions on the track. WEC is a tough environment to conquer, and that is precisely why we are competing in it, and at COTA this weekend, we aim to take another step towards that goal.”
