What is Aston Martin up to?

[CTD]

Originally Posted by JayBMS

i''ve been thinking more about this

I'm sure i read Fernandez was a multi year deal.

I rate Mucke quite highly and im sure AMR will keep him on.

Handcock will be in the JOTA GT2 car i think.

Enge and Turner should be there unless one is loaned out to to a GT team

Primat is solid and should being some $$ to the program.


so by my math that leave only 1 or 2 seats up for grabs if AMR go for 3 Driver cars

Juan Barazi or Charouz could be in a 3rd car to bring some bucks to the project.

[JayBMS]

Don't think Juan will be there. He didn't even show up on race day at silverstone

[manthey]

in the latest issue of EVO mag (italy but I guess also uk) there is an interesting interview with richards speaking about mini-prodrive wrc
talking about costs he said: " in 2005 35mln € to race subaru impreza wrc, now I expect 17mln € for a the mini wrc program
Just for comparison, aston martin spent 12mln € to race le mans last year"

[deggis]

Really only for Le Mans itself? (That 12 millions figure)

[isynge]

I would be astonished if that EUR12M was entirely correct.

I know the Aston Martin engine is very expensive to run, and there are undoubted costs related to the chassis, to say nothing of the promotional costs of hosting guests etc (even if you should look at you marketing budget as something else, and essentially self financing). That said, even if this is a few years back the quoted budget you could find for running a full LMS season was in the single multiples of million Euros - sure not peanuts, but this would be enough to be competitive.

Chuck in some of the other issues, such as the role of paying drivers, and the pre-funding of the campaign through chassis sales, and I can't help thinking that this is a bit of a case of DR being a little bit disingenuous.

[Tim the Grey]

Have you SEEN the AMR mobile hospitality unit? There's a good big chunk of money right off the bat. DPR has spent a short time in F1, and his costbase has risen accordingly...

My guess would be the 'bespoke' bit's of the Aston's are not cheap. But even so, I doubt they spent THAT much for the whole season...

[JayBMS]

Does sound like a lot. But 09 was the start up year so there could have been a lot of initial outlay. Any idea how much their paid drivers get?

[HORNDAWG]

Hmm, I thought the cars were presold to collecters and then raced. No? That being the case where are all the major costs, hell, its a Lola with AMR lipstick. I find the # a little out there myself.




L.P.

[joeb]

AMR just announced a junior team, and no Young Driver AMR isn't the junior team for some reason.
Looks like the focus will be development of GT4 and 3 teams.

[Porsche917K]

"Young Driver" AMR had Thoms Enge, Darren Turner, Stefan Mucke, Pedro Lamy, and Christopher Nygaard. Pretty much all are established or already under AMR's wing.

So hopefully a GT4 team will give some young guns a ladder to climb.

[rich07]

So this the younger driver AMR? lol

[Gen_AMR]

Hi All,

We are Generation AMR, not to be confused with Young Driver AMR!! We are the Official Aston Martin Racing Junior Team which will focus on the development of young talented GT drivers to enable them to progress up the career ladder, starting with Anthony & James in the FIA GT4 European Cup, though we also aim to run cars in the UK one-make series and in other endurance events across Europe in 2011, with our eyes on the next step up in due course.

As soon as the website is complete, we'll let you know as there will be loads of information and reports on there. You can also follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Genera...56324387744668) and we will shortly be starting team and driver Twitter feeds.

Look forward to sharing the highs and lows (though we hope not too many of those!!) of racing with you all.

Cheers,

Generation AMR

[Tim the Grey]

So, I hope you were all paying attention at the back?
Young Driver is the SENIOR team, Generation is the JUNIOR team. Not sure where Jota fit into this age thing, but somehow they aren't striking me as young!
Are HEXIS the Middle Age, now?

Anyway, welcome GAMR, I will have a chat off forum, as I help my son with lendurance.

[JayBMS]

good luck guys,

Will it be the new spec Vanatage (http://www.amr-teams.co.uk/?2010/11/...vised-for.html) or will it be the current car?

[Speed-King]

From murphythebear via twitter:

Lola no more; Prodrive talking to ORECA for next Aston Martin proto chassis.

Isn't it a bit late for that now?

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

From murphythebear via twitter:



Isn't it a bit late for that now?

Yes! I was under the impression this new car was going to be done in-house? I thought after the breakdown in relations after the current car Lola were no more as of a while ago....

[JayBMS]

It could be like the Audi / Dallara programs we've seen before.

i.e Oreca making a car for AMR that is 100% AMR design.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

From murphythebear via twitter:



Isn't it a bit late for that now?

to construct a car by Sebring, I would hope they are further along that choosing a build partner. Maybe this was decided long ago, but now being reported?

[tkelland]

This may not be close to the truth, but I remember Hughes de Chaunac saying that they had the spyder (open top) Oreca in P2 going ahead with development and builds but had stopped their P1 coupe for 2011. Might Aston Martin (after seeing that many of the other major players) are going with coupe's for their new cars have decided that they may have been better off with a different chassis?

Total speculation here. Would be nice to see the Oreca P1 coupe, as I think they are much more in the spirit of sports cars.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by tkelland

This may not be close to the truth, but I remember Hughes de Chaunac saying that they had the spyder (open top) Oreca in P2 going ahead with development and builds but had stopped their P1 coupe for 2011. Might Aston Martin (after seeing that many of the other major players) are going with coupe's for their new cars have decided that they may have been better off with a different chassis?

Total speculation here. Would be nice to see the Oreca P1 coupe, as I think they are much more in the spirit of sports cars.

Aston will not be reusing a chassis made for another marque (Oreaca/Peugeot) that lesson learned they with the Lola cars.
But i do think that Oreca will build the cars themselves, and might be doing it, right now, and the rumors are late. Which could be a PR-stunt to get some more interest (see investors and oil-sheiks) into the project without shouting it out.

[JayBMS]

Thinking about it more AMR must already have a car near completion as a couple if the drivers have already seen it a sat in to check the seating position

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by JayBMS

Thinking about it more AMR must already have a car near completion as a couple if the drivers have already seen it a sat in to check the seating position

Who has sat in it? I was hoping they would mix things up a bit with their driver line-up for next year.

[JayBMS]

I know Fernandez and one other current driver has been and sat in the P1 car

also Sam Hancock has been to the factory and done some "secret stuff" but that could be GT2 related

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by JayBMS

also Sam Hancock has been to the factory and done some "secret stuff" but that could be GT2 related

There was an announcement in the summer that Jota Sport (a team with which Hancock has some kind of relation) is going to run a V8 Vantage in GTE next year... I seem to recall that they were talking about LMS and Le Mans itself.

[TF110]

Any of their GT1 young driver pilots? Enge, Turner, Nygard, Mucke? They're the fab four in Aston's stable aren't they?