What is Aston Martin up to?

[Simmi]

I'd wager there are a few interesting names heading to this Portimao test.

http://www.endurance-info.com/fr/ast...vec-dix-autos/

[TF110]

I wonder what changes are going to be made to the 2014 car.

[Rodger Davies]

Well one name known, according to his twitter Andrew Jordan is testing the GT3, good to see.

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by carabus

Tomas Enge already allowed to racing :-)

Fantastic news ..... Is he gaggin on prune juice ..... Prodrive hopefully will snap him up .

[TheNo1F1Fan]

Originally Posted by carabus

Tomas Enge already allowed to racing :-)

[Simmi]

We should be able to answer the question in the thread title for 2014 tomorrow morning.

Announcement time...

[TheMightyM]

Well, we know part of the answer: they won’t be at Sebring or presumably Watkins Glen or Petit Le Mans.

IMSA/TUSC have updated the Sebring entry list and the Aston Martin GTLM car is no longer included.

[Lanky Turtle]

Well that's not good news. I was hoping they were bluffing.

[TF110]

Their site says they are waiting on bop because they were uncompetitive at Daytona. No decision made yet it seems.

[Simmi]

Aston have been handed a break since Daytona I believe. Hopefully they'll turn up but they are running out of time and need to get a car shipped/flown out.

[TheMightyM]

Originally Posted by TF110

Their site says they are waiting on bop because they were uncompetitive at Daytona. No decision made yet it seems.

They got a BOP break. When you go from being on the initial entry list to not being on it a week later, I’d argue that a decision has been made not to go, it’s just that it hasn’t been publicly announced yet.

[carbon_titanium]

Maybe they are unhappy because were expecting a bop like this:
AMR vantage 1200kg, all the others 1300kg...

[Simmi]

http://www.dailysportscar.com/?p=23769
http://sportscar365.com/wec/amr-bamb...ge-gte-attack/

A few surprises here. Namely Bamboo Engineering coming in to run the #99 PRO car with their own drivers. Seems like AMR have basically sold this full-season pro package. Two silvers and a gold is hardly a Pro-worthy line-up in Rees/MacDowell/O'Young.

It also raises more questions than answers in terms of the drivers for Le Mans. Senna seems to have been flicked in the WEC. No word on Stanaway who is the jewel in their crown IMO since Mako's gone.

[Simmi]

Okay seems Senna has other TBC full-season plans - http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112694

Hence only Le Mans.

[somebodysb2]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Seems like AMR have basically sold this full-season pro package.

Definitely. According to Autosport, "the relationship for this year is understood to be largely commercial, although Bamboo will be supplying some technical staff."

[TF110]

No mention of tusc. There is mention of trg but only the gt4 vantage.

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by Simmi

Okay seems Senna has other TBC full-season plans - http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112694

Hence only Le Mans.

Formula E, isn't it?

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by somebodysb2

Definitely. According to Autosport, "the relationship for this year is understood to be largely commercial, although Bamboo will be supplying some technical staff."

It's an interesting move.

I'll be very interested to see if they run that same #99 line-up at Le Mans or whether they try to switch out drivers into the Craft car or elsewhere. Because that's a race-winning AM line-up but they'll get blown away in the Pro ranks.

[somebodysb2]

Originally Posted by Simmi

It's an interesting move.

I'll be very interested to see if they run that same #99 line-up at Le Mans or whether they try to switch out drivers into the Craft car or elsewhere. Because that's a race-winning AM line-up but they'll get blown away in the Pro ranks.

My understanding is that in GTE Am, each car must include at least one bronze driver. We definitely aren't seeing the whole picture here though, either their sponsors really wanted GTE Pro or they displayed Platinum-level pace in testing. Who knows, because Rees functioned as the Silver driver (aka disguised pro) for Larbre and O'Young got a second with AF Corse last year. However MacDowell is the weakest link here due to a Touring Car-only CV.

I expect the AMR 95 Am car to absolutely dominate its category. Kristian Poulsen is not a bronze driver despite his FIA rating.

[Simmi]

My guess is that the only car Aston had available to effectively 'buy into' was the #99.

Both the #95 and #98 (through Dalla Lana) have their own controlling factors. I hope to be pleasantly surprised but I don't see those drivers keeping up with the absolute elite level factory GT drivers.

Maybe this is Aston looking at the bigger picture?

[NelisB]

Not that big of a surprise but Makowiecki has been confirmed at Porsche this morning.

[IndyMeister]

Originally Posted by NelisB

Not that big of a surprise but Makowiecki has been confirmed at Porsche this morning.

Nope, no surprise. But that doesn't mean that the whole issue is solved (although I hope it is).

[Coach Ep]

Seems like AM has ditched TUSC for TransAm

[Tim the Grey]

Press Release here at work...
Aston 2014 plans. No mention of TUSC, sorry.

2014 marks ten years of Aston Martin Racing - the luxury sportcar maker’s most extensive motorsport campaign in its 101-year history - and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) will once again be the highlight of the calendar, as the team fields four V8 Vantage GTEs in the full season, and as many as seven cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

This campaign will be complimented by some of the toughest endurance races in the world; Nürburgring 24 Hours (N24) and Spa 24 Hours in the V12 Vantage GT3.

The success of the Vantage GT3, launched at the start of 2012, has encouraged Aston Martin to increase its factory team’s focus on GT3 racing. Now in its third year of a five-year plan to win the ADAC Nürburgring 24, the works team will once again field its Bilstein-liveried Vantage GT3. The V12 charger will be piloted by long-standing works drivers Darren Turner (GB) and Stefan Mücke (DE), who will be joined by five-times N24-winner Pedro Lamy (PT).

David King, Head of Motorsport at Aston Martin comments: “We are ramping up our focus on our GT3 activities as this enables us to compete for outright victory in some of the world’s toughest endurance races, such as N24, but the WEC campaign with the V8-powered Vantage GTE will once again be the backbone of our motorsport activity in 2014.”

Returning to make a full-season assault on the WEC, after narrowly missing out on the world championship title in 2013, is the #97 Gulf-liveried Vantage GTE of Turner and Mücke. Having been with Aston Martin Racing since its inception in 2004, Turner joins the team in celebrating the tenth anniversary.

The second of the two GTE-Pro cars, the #99 Bamboo Engineering Vantage GTE, will be piloted by Aston Martin Racing’s newest signings, 2012 WEC GTE-AM World Champion Fernando Rees (BR), WTCC driver Alex MacDowall (GB) and Craft Racing AMR’s Darryl O’Young (HK), who all tested the car at the official Aston Martin Racing test session in Portimao last week.

“The test went really well in Portimao, and we have another test planned soon,” said Rees. “The team is working really hard and I am really happy to continue in the WEC and be part of the Aston Martin Racing family.”

In the third WEC entry, the all-Danish #95 Young Driver car, David Heinemeier-Hansson will join last year’s drivers Kristian Poulsen, Christoffer Nygaard and Nicki Thiim, who will compete at selected rounds due to clashes with other commitments. Also in the GTE-Am class, a fourth Vantage GTE will compete, with the team driving alongside experienced Canadian Paul Dalla Lana to be confirmed at a later date.

The drivers for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the fourth round of the WEC and the highest profile endurance race in the world, will also be confirmed nearer the time, but the team has announced that Bruno Senna (BR) will make his return following a successful race in 2013.

“This year marks the tenth anniversary for Aston Martin Racing and we can celebrate a decade of modern sportscar racing with our largest campaign yet,” said John Gaw, Team Principal at Aston Martin Racing.

The team also plans to enter a V12 Vantage GT3 in the Silverstone round of the Blancpain Endurance Series (BES) as well as having a works team entry in the championship’s toughest endurance round, Spa 24 Hours.

“Our GT3 has been extremely successful,” comments Gaw. “We launched it back in early 2012 as a well-developed machine and this allowed customer teams to win races from the off-set and meant that they were spared costly upgrades at the end of the year. Last year, the GT3’s performance in the Asian Le Mans Series granted Craft Racing a 24 Hours of Le Mans entry and it won the British GT Championship with Beechdean AMR. It also led N24 for 13 hours and set pole at Spa 24 Hours. We hope to build on this success in 2014.”

Increased support will also be offered to GT3 customers competing in the British GT Championship, including last year’s winners Beechdean AMR; championship contenders MP Motorsport; new partner team TF Sport, which will increase its entry from one car to two; and Motorbase Performance, which will enter a pair of new GT3s. Aston Martin Racing will also assist Beechdean AMR’s title challenge for the GT4 class with its new V8-powered Vantage GT4 – the 100th off the production line.

Further adding to the Aston Martin presence at British GT Championship rounds, the popular GT4 challenge, now in its fourth year, becomes a support race to the Britain’s premier GT championship. Not only that, but the enduring popularity of the Vantage GT4 is further underlined by the launch of a GT4 Challenge in North America with the support of TRG-AMR.

[Mike E]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/0...0GX0L320140902

http://sportscar365.com/industry/nis...-aston-martin/