Aston Martin THOR ran a development version of the Valkyrie Hypercar at Silverstone on Wednesday, August 19, completing a full test on the 3.66-mile Grand Prix circuit with factory drivers Ross Gunn and Harry Tincknell sharing the car. Silverstone is home to the AMR Technology Campus and will host the British round of the 2027 FIA World Endurance Championship.
The team used the day to assess a range of technical items under development, gathering data as it evaluates the future performance direction of the car. Team principal Ian James said the developments tested will inform where the team takes the Valkyrie technically, and that Silverstone proved a useful venue for challenging ideas.
Adam Carter, Aston Martin’s head of endurance motorsport, said the team is starting to explore performance gains available through developing the base car now that it understands the car’s characteristics after 18 months of racing. He described the test as an early step in that process. The test also gave the team data on Michelin tire and circuit characteristics ahead of the WEC’s return to Silverstone.
The 6 Hours of Silverstone runs April 23 to 25, 2027, as the third round of a nine-race calendar, slotting between the 6 Hours of Imola and the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. It marks the WEC’s first British round since 2019.
Valkyrie’s 2026 results include its first WEC double-points finish at the 6 Hours of São Paulo last month, where the cars placed sixth and ninth. In IMSA, Gunn and Roman De Angelis were classified fifth at Road America earlier this month after finishing second on the road, the car’s sixth top-10 finish from seven starts in the series. Aston Martin describes the Valkyrie as the only car in the top category of either WEC or IMSA derived from a road-legal hypercar, and it is the first Le Mans Hypercar the company has built.
The competition car pairs a race-optimized carbon fiber chassis with a modified version of the 6.5-liter V12 that revs to 11,000 rpm. The engine produces more than 1,000 hp in road car form but runs to a 500 kW limit under Hypercar regulations, equivalent to roughly 671 hp. The car runs without a hybrid system.
GalleryPhotos by Aston Martin
