Aston Martin boss: Valkyrie could race at Le Mans

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer has called for motorsport's governing body to change the regulations to allow road-biased hypercars to race at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Palmer, speaking to Brit mag Autocar, confirmed he had already consulted with the FIA for the change that could entice other hypercar makers like McLaren to enter the track-focused Senna it revealed last week.

Recently, sports car racing's top-flight LMP1 category has faced an uncertain future following the withdrawal of Porsche, Audi and Nissan from the sport, leaving just Toyota as the sole works team.

It's been reported the associated costs with fielding a 'prototype' racer has frightened off other car-makers interested with entering the sport.

Speaking to Autocar, Palmer said: "My personal perspective is very clear: Aston Martin will never compete in a prototype category because it has no relevance to us. But if they allowed racing derivatives of road cars, that would be very interesting for us and, I suspect, the fans."

Aston's boss went on to tell the magazine that he relished the prospect of seeing the Valkyrie fighting it out against cars like the McLaren Senna and LaFerrari.

Despite being created chiefly as a road car, the Valkyrie has a racing thoroughbred on account of it being developed as part of a collaboration with Red Bull Racing.

Recently, Aston Martin virtually revealed the Valkyrie AMR Pro that could provide the template for the future Le Mans racer.

Created for multi-millionaire track-day fans, just 25 will be made.

Weighing less than the road car, the AMR Pro version gets a completely redesigned aero package and has been developed to run on slick tyres lifted from an LMP1 racer.

Powered by the same naturally-aspirated 6.5-litre V12 as the road car, the track-only version is thought to push out more than 700kW and have a top speed of more than 400km/h.