It wasn’t the news Aston Martin Racing fans wanted to hear just before Christmas, but unfortunately, the 16-year long Factory AMR campaign is over. The funding for the pro team in the WEC has been pulled. For Aston it was a combination of things, the parent company is in a restructuring phase, and the corona virus pushed it over the edge. They have joined Bentley who have also pulled there Factory team from GT3 racing. But in the case of AMR they are not leaving the world of GT/sportscars and endurance racing altogether. They just won’t be running cars in a factory capacity. AMR are turning there focus to support their customer base. Think of it as how Audi runs their GT3/GT4 business.

This post though is to look back at the long life of the AMR factory team. They are the reason for my love of GT and Endurance racing, captivating me way back when they announced the DBR9.

Aston Martin DBR9

The noise of this thing un-silenced, back before the championship organisers put in a noise limit. My god the howl of this V12 was something to listen too. You could hear it from the other side of the circuit at times, you knew exactly what was coming around the corner before you could see it. So loud, but so elegant, just look at her. Such a pretty but aggressive race car. Quick enough to be overtaking LMP2 cars on the straights at Le Mans, while always battling the Corvettes. She took 2 GT1 victories at Le Mans and numerous race wins in the ELMS/LMS, FIA GT1 and ALMS.

Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 (Aston Martin DBR1-2)

Talking of amazing sounding V12’s, whoever’s idea it was to take the DBR9’s V12 and slot it into the back of a Lola chassis was genius. It gave birth to a true fan favourite the Lola Aston. Sounding like an old V12 F1 race car, this thing sang down any straight it was pointed at. Let’s not forget round nearly every corner as well, this was a true LMP1 car. When talking about the old breed of LMP1 cars, the Aston Lola is one that always comes up.

The Lola Aston won the 2009 Le Mans Series outright and had a stunning podium lockout at the Nurburgring. Along with podiums at Barcelona and Silverstone, Spa and the Algarve. At Le Mans, the best result achieved was 4th, after running as high as 3rd. There were also appearances in the ALMS for these cars. Finally, after the failed AMR-one prototype at the start of the ILMC campaign, AMR moved back to the Lola chassised car. In a more restricted performance guise as the car was “grandfathered” into the new LMP1 regulations, to finish the season in 2011.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE (GT2 based)

For 2012 AMR moved back to the GT class, now the GTE class in the new FIA WEC. The Vantage GTE, based on the Vantage GT2 that customers used in previous years, had been thoroughly upgraded and revised. Powered by a 4.7 litre V8, the car once again quickly became a fan favourite. Not only did the Vantage earn plenty of GTE Pro and Am category wins throughout the 2012 – 2015 campaigns. In 2014 they were also the GTE Pro Winners of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage ‘GT8’ GTE

2016 saw a new set of GTE regulations, which were more aero based and allowed the engines to produce more power. AMR redesigned the Vantage aero to comply with the new regulations. While keeping the tried and tested 4.7l V8 producing 500BHP (estimated) and the same glorious thundering V8 noise we all loved. The redesign proved to be a winner straight away. With AMR winning the 2016 Teams and Drivers championship in GTE Pro and then in 2017 winning the Le Mans 24 hours.

Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE

2018 this beauty of a car was debuted. The new twin turbo V8 Vantage, yes its an AMG engine that Prodrive modified to a flat plane crank, over the crossplane crank the car normally comes with. The downside to this was the fact the noise was lost. Not that it’s a bad sound, it’s just very turbo-ie. But on the other hand that car looks gorgeous. To me even better than the old school Vantage. More racey and purposeful looking, thanks to the very well developed aero package Prodrive did in CFD for the GTE car. The new car proved its self in the first year (2018/2019) with wins at Shanghai and Spa, but with only the high downforce aero package available Le Mans was a bust.

Then we come to AMR’s final year in the WEC GTE Pro class as the factory team, for now at least. Starting in the second half of 2019 and ending at the end of 2020, the pandemic took its toll on the season. But apart from the fact, the world went to s**t, we got to witness AMR show their full potential. By winning both the Manufacturers and Drivers title in GTE Pro. Multiple wins throughout the year and podiums at every race expect the very last round in Bahrain. The big one though was the win at the very delayed Le Mans 24 Hours, along with a 3rd place. For me, the only disappointing thing was the fact I was supposed to be at Le Mans. But due to rona I missed AMR take that win as many others did.

To the Future

It’s a great way to go out as the champions, but I am sure the team would rather be defending the titles. But the decision has been made. Thankfully, Prodrive is going to continue to build the GT3 and GT4 cars, along with GTE cars if customers want them. Add in support for current and future teams. The factory drivers are retained and are to be distributed to partner teams in various championships. As for the customer AMR run cars in GTE AM, that can continue. With the hope that they can actually run even more customers now.
What this means for the longer term, that’s not been mentioned. But I hope that we continue to see Aston Martin represented in the WEC/Le Mans. Along with GT3 and GT4 for many more years. Will they develop new race cars for future regulations, we will just have to wait and see. But I hope they do!

Now, we will continue to support the customer teams to many more wins, as they are handed the torch to represent Aston Martin in there true motorsport home.