Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer has ambitious plans for the future, not just of the British automaker, but also of the FIA.
Palmer, on Sky Sports’ program “F1 Report,” revealed that he hopes the FIA sanctions a hypercar world championship, so to speak. The hypothetical category would provide Aston a racing series in which it could enter the track-only Valkyrie — expected to be nearly as fast as a Formula One car.
Aston Martin has partnered with Red Bull Racing both to develop the Valkyrie, and learn the ropes of F1 as it contemplates entering the sport as an engine manufacturer. The company’s vision would see its Adrian Newey-designed model compete against the top performance cars from other automakers involved in F1, such as Ferrari and McLaren.
“I would love…Â our position and (what) I hope will come true is one day,” Palmer said, “wouldn’t it be great, if a relative of the Valkyrie was capable of racing against the relative of LaFerrari, the relative of the P1?”
One of the reason’s Palmer is in favor of such a championship is that, like the increasingly popular GT racing categories, it would utilize racers derived from road cars. Fewer people could attain the road-going versions of the hypercars than can purchase GT street cars, like the Porsche 911, but the series promote brand recognition.
“These are aspirational cars, but at least you know they’re possible to put on the road,” Palmer told Sky Sports. “That’s my personal wish — that yes, there will be a racing version of the Valkyrie, and it would be in whatever the successor of LMP1 is.”
Palmer’s vision of the Valkyrie competing in the World Endurance Championship’s soon-to-be revamped Le Mans Prototype 1 class admittedly seems unlikely. The FIA already has said it intends for the category to utilize proper prototypes.
That said, the series sounds like a great way for the FIA to reincarnate the GT Prototype class from the 1990s, which used homologated road cars. Plus, given the hype around Aston’s forthcoming Valkyrie, as well as the previous “hypercar trinity” — LaFerrari, P1, Porsche 918 — it likely would be extremely popular.
