Aston Martin Racing

Aston Martin Racing

Founded	2004
Team principal(s)	John Gaw (2012–present)
Current series	FIA World Endurance Championship
Former series	American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, GT4 European Cup
Noted drivers	Christian Klien, Stefan Mücke, Darren Turner, Bruno Senna, Richie Stanaway, Fernando Rees

Aston Martin Racing's DBR9 which won the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGT1 Class

Sponsored by Gulf Oil, one of Aston Martin Racing's 2008 DBR9

An Aston Martin-powered Lola B08/60 run by Charouz Racing System and backed by Aston Martin Racing

Aston Martin Racing is a British auto racing team established in 2004 as a partnership between automobile manufacturer Aston Martin and engineering group Prodrive. The partnership was initially created for the purpose of returning Aston Martin to sports car racing with the DBR9, a heavily modified variant of the Aston Martin DB9. Since the DBR9's racing debut in 2005, Aston Martin Racing has expanded to build a variety of cars available to customers, as well as development of Aston Martin's V12 engine for Le Mans Prototype use. Aston Martin Racing's program has earned several successes over the years.

Although all cars are built by Prodrive at their factory, Aston Martin plays an integral part in designing the race cars, as well as integrating elements of the race cars back into Aston Martin's road cars.

On 23 April 2009, Aston Martin chairman and Prodrive founder David Richards announced his intent to return to Formula One in 2010 with the possibility of using the Aston Martin name, however this never materialised. Aston Martin had previously raced in the 1959 and 1960 Formula One seasons but failed to score points in either year.

Cars

Aston Martin Racing builds cars for international grand tourer classes. The team itself run a squad of DBR9s in the former top class, GT1, while other cars were offered to customers. The GTE class (formerly GT2) became their next target after the failure of the 2011 season, and the car is based on the V8 Vantage. The V8 Vantage is also featured in GT3 and GT4 classes. Before GT3 Vantage was introduced the DBRS9 was also solely racing in GT3.

In 2008, Aston Martin Racing began their entry into the Le Mans Prototype category with the aid of Charouz Racing System, installing a DBR9 V12 into a Lola B08/60 LMP1 prototype.

On 27 January 2009, the team announced a full works entry in the Le Mans Prototype category for the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Lola-Aston Martin B09/60. The entry marks the 50th anniversary of its last outright win at Le Mans. The 2009 programme got off to an unfortunate start at the pre season Paul Ricard test on 8 March when Tomas Enge destroyed the 007 car in an accident. Aston Martin Racing subsequently took delivery of a new Lola to replace the written off chassis. The team entered two LMP1 cars bearing the iconic blue and orange livery of Gulf Oil. The aim was to emulate the achievements of the 1959 race win with the DBR1 driven by Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori. At Le Mans the AMR Eastern Europe 007 car of Jan Charouz, Tomáš Enge and Stefan Mücke finished fourth behind the factory entries of Peugeot and Audi, as well as being the highest finishing petrol-fuelled car. The 008 car was running as high as 3rd overall in the morning until Anthony Davidson had a collision with a GT1 Aston. Subsequent repairs and a 5-minute stop and go penalty—for causing the collision—dropped the car out of contention. The 009 car was retired after 252 laps.

Three cars were also entered in the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, although only the 007 and 009 cars were run by Aston Martin Racing; the 008 car was run by the French team Signature-Plus. Both the 008 and 009 cars suffered from problems and had to be retired, leaving only the 007 to finish 6th overall and completing 365 laps, less than it did in 2009.

In 2011 the B09/60 was succeeded by the Aston Martin AMR-One, powered by a downsized, 2.0 litre turbocharged straight six petrol engine. Initially, the car was running very poorly. In its first racing event, the 2011 6 Hours of Castellet, it was only as fast as some of the LMP2 cars in qualifying and was plagued with mechanical issues. It completed only 96 laps. They then decided not to race it in the rounds of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup leading up to Le Mans so they can continue private testing with the troubled car in order to sort out the mechanical issues. So around came Le Mans and despite the testing and extra car, they were still lapping in the middle of the LMP2 pack in qualifying and in the race it was much a much worse scenario. Car #009 retired after only two laps around the Circuit de la Sarthe and car #007 reted two laps later on lap four. Both cars completed a combined six laps at the 79th Grand Prix of Endurance. After this shocking result, the team raced the old B09/60 for the remainder of the season although a much downgraded version in order to comply with the new 2011 regulations.

For 2012, Aston Martin Racing returned to GT racing with the V8 Vantage GT2. They entered two cars at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans with one in the LMGTE-Pro class and one in the LMGTE-Am class. They also had a third Vantage in the GTE-Pro class as a reserve entrant. One of the existing AMR-One's has been sold to Pescarolo Sport who are set to compete with that car and naming it the Pescarolo 03. They will use an engine from Judd Power rather than the Aston Martin powerplant. The other AMR-One has formed the base for the new DeltaWing project which debuted at Le Mans in 2012 with Highcroft Racing. The DeltaWing uses the AMR-One's carbon fibre tub.

In 2013 to celebrate the centenary of the marque, the team will be entering two 2013 specification Aston Martin Vantage GTE's in the LMGTE PRO class and two 2012 specification Vantage GTE's in LMGTE AM. The team will also compete in the full season of the FIA World Endurance Championship with the same cars. Ex-Formula 1 driver Bruno Senna will join the team for the season in the one of the GTE Pro cars partnered by Fréderic Makowiecki and Robert Bell. The main GTE Pro car will feature AMR regulars Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke and will be joined by Peter Dumbreck for the 24 hours of Le Mans and the Six hours of Spa-Franchorchamps.

Results

Since the team's debut at the 2005 12 Hours of Sebring, Aston Martin Racing has earned several important victories in their career. Their very first race actually earned them their first victory, defeating the Corvette Racing squad at Sebring. The RAC Tourist Trophy was also won later that year.

For 2006, Aston Martin Racing entered the full American Le Mans Series season, earning five victories including the Petit Le Mans, and finishing second in the GT1 championship, three points shy of Corvette Racing. In 2007, Aston Martin earned their first victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans since the company's overall win in 1959 by overcoming the Corvette squad. This feat was repeated once more in 2008 in GT1, while the team also had involvement in the Lola B08/60 LMP1 Coupe run under the Charouz Racing banner

For 2009 Aston Martin Racing entered two of their new prototypes along with Aston Martin Racing Eastern Europe which completed the works trio of DBR1-2 or Lola-Aston Martin B09/60. The teams greatest success with the new prototype came with the 2009 Le Mans Series (LMS) where in the first round in Barcelona the team won the 1000 km de Catalunya outright and with a string of podiums and a 1-2-3 sweep of the ADAC 1000 km Nürburgring and a podium at the Autosport 1000 km of Silverstone sealed the 2009 drivers title for 007 and Jan Charouz, Tomas Enge, Stefan Mucke and the constructors title for Aston Martin-LOLA as well as the team title for Aston Martin Racing.

Results

• 2009
  number 007 car, 373 laps, finished 4th overall and 4th in class
  number 008 car, 342 laps, finished 13th overall and 11th in class
  number 009 car, did not finish, 252 laps, finished 40th overall, and 16th in class.
  The number 007 car won the Le Mans Series overall, and the number 009 finished fourth.

• 2010
  number 007 car, 365 laps, finished 6th overall and 5th in class
  number 008 car, did not finish, 302 laps, finished 33rd overall, and 11th in class
  number 009 car, did not finish, 368 laps, finished 30th overall and 8th in class.

• 2011
  number 007 car, did not finish, 2 laps, finished 55th overall, last but one in race and in class, only beating
  number 009 car, did not finish, 0 laps, finished 56th, last overall and in class.

• 2012
  number 97 car 332 laps, finished 19th overall, 3rd in class
  number 99 car, did not finish, 31 laps, finished 54th, last in class.

• 2013
  number 97 car 314 laps, finished 17th overall, 3rd in class
  number 96 car, 301 laps, finished 30th, 6th in class
  number 99 car, did not finish, 248 laps, finished 44th, 11th in class
  number 98 car, did not finish, 221 laps, finished 47th, 12th in class
  number 95 car, did not finish, 2 laps, finished 55th, last in class (driver Allan Simonsen killed)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Entrant	No	Car	Drivers	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2005	Aston Martin Racing	58	Aston Martin DBR9	Peter Kox Pedro Lamy Tomáš Enge	GT1	327	DNF	DNF
		59	Aston Martin DBR9	David Brabham Stéphane Sarrazin Darren Turner	GT1	333	9th	3rd
2006	Aston Martin Racing	007	Aston Martin DBR9	Darren Turner Tomáš Enge Andrea Piccini	GT1	350	6th	2nd
		009	Aston Martin DBR9	Pedro Lamy Stéphane Sarrazin Stéphane Ortelli	GT1	342	10th	5th
2007	Aston Martin Racing	007	Aston Martin DBR9	Johnny Herbert Peter Kox Tomáš Enge	GT1	337	9th	4th
		009	Aston Martin DBR9	David Brabham Darren Turner Rickard Rydell	GT1	343	5th	1st
	Aston Martin Racing Larbre	006	Aston Martin DBR9	Patrick Bornhauser Roland Bervillé Gregor Fisken	GT1	272	29th	13th
		008	Aston Martin DBR9	Christophe Bouchut Fabrizio Gollin Casper Elgaard	GT1	341	7th	3rd
	Aston Martin Racing BMS	100	Aston Martin DBR9	Fabio Babini Jamie Davies Matteo Malucelli	GT1	336	11th	6th
2008	Charouz Racing System Aston Martin Racing	10	Lola B08/60-Aston Martin	Jan Charouz Tomáš Enge Stefan Mücke	LMP1	354	9th	9th
	Aston Martin Racing	007	Aston Martin DBR9	Heinz-Harald Frentzen Andrea Piccini Karl Wendlinger	GT1	339	16th	4th
		009	Aston Martin DBR9	David Brabham Antonio García Darren Turner	GT1	344	13th	1st
2009	AMR Eastern Europe	007	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	Jan Charouz Tomáš Enge Stefan Mücke	LMP1	373	4th	4th
	Aston Martin Racing	008	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	Anthony Davidson Darren Turner Jos Verstappen	LMP1	342	13th	11th
		009	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	Stuart Hall Harold Primat Peter Kox	LMP1	252	DNF	DNF
2010	Aston Martin Racing	007	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	Harold Primat Stefan Mücke Adrián Fernández	LMP1	365	6th	5th
		009	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	Darren Turner Juan Barazi Sam Hancock	LMP1	368	DNF	DNF
	Signature-Plus	008	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	Pierre Ragues Franck Mailleux Vanina Ickx	LMP1	302	DNF	DNF
	Young Driver AMR	52	Aston Martin DBR9	Tomáš Enge Christoffer Nygaard Peter Kox	LMGT1	311	22nd	3rd
2011	Aston Martin Racing	007	Aston Martin AMR-One	Stefan Mücke Darren Turner Christian Klien	LMP1	4	DNF	DNF
		009	Aston Martin AMR-One	Harold Primat Adrián Fernández Andy Meyrick	LMP1	2	DNF	DNF
2012	Aston Martin Racing	97	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Stefan Mücke Adrián Fernández Darren Turner	LMGTE Pro	332	19th	3rd
		99	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Christoffer Nygaard Kristian Poulsen Allan Simonsen	LMGTE Am	31	DNF	DNF
2013	Aston Martin Racing	95	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Allan Simonsen Kristian Poulsen Christoffer Nygaard	LMGTE Am	2	DNF	DNF
		96	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Roald Goethe Jamie Campbell-Walter Stuart Hall	LMGTE Am	301	30th	6th
		97	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Darren Turner Peter Dumbreck Stefan Mücke	LMGTE Pro	314	17th	3rd
		98	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Paul Dalla Lana Bill Auberlen Pedro Lamy	LMGTE Pro	221	DNF	DNF
		99	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Bruno Senna Frédéric Makowiecki Rob Bell	LMGTE Pro	248	DNF	DNF
2014	Aston Martin Racing	95	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	David Heinemeier Hansson Kristian Poulsen Nicki Thiim	LMGTE Am	334	19th	1st
		97	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Darren Turner Stefan Mücke Bruno Senna	LMGTE Pro	310	35th	6th
		98	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Christoffer Nygaard	LMGTE Am	329	26th	6th
		99	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Darryl O'Young Alex MacDowall Fernando Rees	LMGTE Pro	-	WD	WD

External links

• Official website