MOTORSPORT: Adrian Newey developing Valkyrie Le Mans racer
Red Bull F1 aerodynamicist on board with Valkyrie race car program, potentially with Max Verstappen behind the wheelAdrian Newey will once again team up with Aston Martin in its bid to claim an outright victory at the Le Mans 24 Hour in 2021 with a Valkyrie hypercar-based racer.
News the famous Red Bull aerodynamicist, engineer and designer would once again work with Aston in converting the reported Valkyrie project for the World Endurance Championship was recently revealed to carsales by Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer.
"He's the original architect of the Valkyrie and the standard he set for the road car was always that it would be quicker than an LMP1, so naturally he's involved," said Palmer, adding that: "how much deeper our partner [Red Bull] gets involved depends on the regulations”.
The return of Aston Martin to top flight motorsport follows Palmer's lobbying the FIA to introduce a cheaper road car-based formula to replace the LMP1 series that has been deserted by other car-makers over the huge costs involved.
Perhaps equally exciting for Formula 1 fans – on top of the Red Bull F1's designer developing the Valkyrie for the FIA World Endurance Championship - the Valkyrie could be piloted in 2021 by current F1 driver Max Verstappen.
When asked specifically if a drive by Verstappen was on the cards, Palmer simply smiled and said: "I think there's a lot of F1 drivers who would love to be involved with this and follow Alonso and try and win the big three.
"Again, no contracts signed but a lot of interest already been expressed," added the Aston boss.
Palmer said the new series announcement, along Aston and Toyota’s respective involvements in its maiden 2021 season, was a case of the stars aligning.
"We can make it to the start line in 15 months and Toyota has been working on their hypercar for a couple of years, so it's possible for them too.
When asked about Newey's involvement, Palmer explained most of the work had already been done.
"The Valkyrie race car is a development of the road car – it's actually more of a de-tune really, there's less power, less speed. Because the base car is capable of a lot more."
Palmer wants to keep costs low in Aston’s new pursuit, and is therefore insisting on the controversial Balance of Power (BoP) being used to even the playing field and entice new entrants to the hypercar class.
"To use the BoP, even though we know its downsides, means there's no point spending tens of millions of dollars refining your car down to the last ounce because you don't get any advantage on track."
Palmer predicts that by the 2022 season, other well-established hyper car-makers will join Aston Martin and Toyota; such are the low costs involved.
"Comparing the costs involved with LMP1 and GTE is like comparing chalk and cheese – it's why we've developed the hypercar class budgets to be more comparable with the GTE Pro than the LM series – which is good because Aston Martin could never afford to raise prototypes," he said.
As well as the four factory-backed cars that will be campaigned by Aston Martin and Toyota, Palmer expects some privateer teams could also be in the mix.
"Whichever derivative the sport ends up as you need more than one competitor, we said this from day one.
"There will be at least four cars, we haven't signed any contracts yet but maybe they'll be some partner teams there too."
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