Aston Martin's 'son of Valkyrie' hypercar set for Le Mans

Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing are poised to team up to race a new mid-engined hypercar – nicknamed the ‘son of Valkyrie’ – for outright victory at Le Mans from 2020.

It was expected that Aston Martin would enter the Valkyrie hypercar into the race when event organisers announced earlier this month that the regulations would be changed to put road-derived and concept hybrid cars in the top category.

However, with the Valkyrie sold out already and the ‘son of Valkyrie’ due to be launched at that time as a modern-day equivalent of the McLaren P1, Aston boss Andy Palmer confirmed to Autocar that this was the likely direction the firm would take.

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“I’m hesitant to confirm we will race at Le Mans before the final regulations have been confirmed, because our experiences in Formula 1 have taught us that in motorsport ideas that begin optimistically can ebb away, but we have a great deal of interest in the new regulations at Le Mans,” said Palmer, referencing the Le Mans organisers’ goal to reduce budgets from current levels by a quarter.

“But the underlying fact is that ‘son of Valkyrie’ will drop at exactly the right time, and if that means it would be able to go into the event and race LaFerraris, Porsche 918s and Sennas, then I cannot think of anything better.”

The ‘son of Valkyrie’ race car will be derived from the road car currently being developed by Aston and Red Bull engineers, which was exclusively revealed by Autocar earlier this year. The development team is being led by legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey.

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