Aston Martin will axe its FIA World Endurance Championship GT team for the 2021 season, with the firm instead supporting customer teams racing the Vantage GTE while focusing its works motorsport efforts on Formula 1.
The British firm has maintained a manufacturer presence in the WEC’s GT division since the launch of the series in 2012, with its works team run by preparation specialist Prodrive.
Aston Martin has scored 47 class wins in the WEC, including four class wins in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Aston drivers Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen have won the drivers’ championship twice, and the squad also won this year’s GT manufacturers’ crown.
For 2021 the Racing Point F1 team, which is owned by Aston chairman Lawrence Stroll, will be rebranded as Aston Martin, and this will be the focus of the firm’s official motorsport efforts.
While it will not run a works team, Aston has agreed a multi-year deal for Prodrive to continue to manufacture and distribute the current V8 Vantage GT racer, and provide support to customer teams fielding the cars in major sports car events.
Aston Martin chief executive Tobias Moers said: “Vantage proved it has world champion pedigree in 2020, and in its GTE variant is a 24-hour race winner. Now with the Vantage GT3 we wish to give our partners and customers the best opportunity possible to fight for victory against our closest rivals in the toughest endurance challenges GT racing has to offer.”
Aston Martin Racing was formed in 2004 with Prodrive running the DBR9 in the GT1 category of sportscar racing. The squad took its first Le Mans class win in 2007 and the following year expanded to field a machine in the top prototype category. After struggling to be competitive in the LMP1 division, Aston returned its manufacturer focus to GT racing when the WEC was established in 2012.
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A massive shame. I agree -- Aston is and should continue to be about sports car and endurance racing. I love F1, but that's not Aston's thing. Moers scares me. He is lauded for "transforming" AMG. He did that - he made it very profitable (a good thing), but IMO he also massively diluted the specialness of AMG. When it was a small firm, an AMG was something truly special. It was a event to see one, and especially to ride in or drive one. Now, an AMG is basically a fast Mercedes. Nice, but not a real event. I hope my fears are unfounded, but I'm afraid that's what he'll do to Aston. Dilute the specialness, and the whole point of Aston Martin would be gone. It's NOT about the image, it's about the substance.
The other problem is that you can not exacty say the AMG GT is beautiful. It is a bit ugly.
And only now that Moers is gone do they seem to be making progress on the Project One again.
If you take on a business that was failing you have to go and understand why it was failing and fix that problem. That problem for Aston Martin is Reichman. You need people going "Wow!" and then queuing up outside the dealerships. That isn't happening because of Reichmans designs.
Plus they need their own engine that doesn't sound like the Mercedes AMG.
Idiots
Flush all that heritage down the toilet in search of a vanity project to support Lance Stroll's limping F1 career.
Aston is not, and cannot ever be Ferrari or McLaren. But it does have a shot at challenging Porsche and Bentley.
Sadly this kind of 'guidance' from Stroll Snr can only end in failure. Again.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
F1 offers nothing to Aston Martin other than massaging the ego of Stroll and letting his boy play with very expensive toy cars. Aston Martin can offer nothing to F1 either.
Sack Reichman, get a new designer to do a bumper to bumper redesign of the Vantage. Go racing with it. And then you will find the vaule not only of sports car racing but also of having a competent designer.
The only thing Aston should be doing right now is sacking Reichman. That one easy task will save the company, and new models following will be much better sellers with a new and competent person leading design.
Ivan Reitman is a genius.
Good one. He should have stuck to Ghostbusting.