What is Aston Martin up to?

[billy bleach]

Valerie race project binned.....end of Hyperclass?

[S griffin]

Shame, that Valkyrie has a lot of potential. We’ll see if the Hyperclass still gets enough entries

[billy bleach]

Originally Posted by TF110

I just hope that they continue racing sportscars. I don't think Stroll is a guy who is solely focused on f1 for their racing. He should know that the gt3 is a business selling cars.

Yes but not his business, Prodrive build them. All Aston Martin get is sales of components to build them plus great exposure

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by billy bleach

Yes but not his business, Prodrive build them. All Aston Martin get is sales of components to build them plus great exposure

Yeah, cause Prodrive gets to use another's IP for free in building the cars? Not even remotely, guarantee there is money being made by Aston Martin in the building of GT3 and GTE cars

[mogwai]

Originally Posted by Columbus

Not much evidence of SMART financial planning at Aston Martin lately - their bold second century product plan wiped 75% off the company’s stock value!

I posted something akin to this just now in the Hypercar thread. You're right on the money. Not only sacrificed stock value but reduced liquidity to levels which required contingent debt obligations to meet liquidity needs. No contingency plan if things didn't work out. The "Second Century Plan" always made me chuckle.

[Mike E]

Production suspended, share price down 47% today. A pound a share!
Maybe Stroll will just take the whole thing private.

[broadrun96]

Ouch, and on the day they voted and approved the Stroll investment plan. If he'd waited he could have bought the whole thing for a nickel and ride home

[chernaudi]

I think if Stroll becomes majority owner, one, he'll take AM back to being a private limited company under UK law, and two, he'll demote or fire Palmer, or force him to resign. May even pay him to just go away like what VAG and Porsche did to Weiking in 2009.

[S griffin]

They have said they will go ahead with plans to change the F1 team name next season, which will be good for those who feel Racing Point isn’t a good team name

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by S griffin

They have said they will go ahead with plans to change the F1 team name next season, which will be good for those who feel Racing Point isn’t a good team name

True, though the share price was a lot higher when said. Things have to be critical for AML right now sadly.

[chernaudi]

Just read that Andy Palmer has been forced to leave Aston Martin as CEO. They're looking at getting someone attached to Mercedes-AMG to take over.

[GT6]

To be very honest i think AM will be very lucky to survive the current situation and if they do will there be enough customers out there for them to spend much on racing

[broadrun96]

Yeah, it looks to me like circling the wagons and I wouldn't be surprised to see them try to buy back the company and take it private again. Don't know if that's possible with the UK rules but I could see the group owning it pushing for a more Ferrari style "lifestyle" company branding.

[Juntos]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Just read that Andy Palmer has been forced to leave Aston Martin as CEO. They're looking at getting someone attached to Mercedes-AMG to take over.

Racing-wise I expect the new guy to axe the FIA WEC GTE-Pro team.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Juntos

Racing-wise I expect the new guy to axe the FIA WEC GTE-Pro team.

On what basis?

[rich07]

Originally Posted by Juntos

Racing-wise I expect the new guy to axe the FIA WEC GTE-Pro team.

Don’t be too certain about that. Depends how much money the company is tipping in versus how much sponsors like Total cover. And then there’s the fact the GTE programme sells cars to customers in GTE AM (even if not many).

[S griffin]

I wouldn't be surprised either way if it decides to stay or go from the WEC. It may be decided that's an unnecessary side part or they may let some third party run it for them. Watch this space I say

[peebee2]

A change at the top might just give them a better chance at survive and/or thrive hopefully.

[tux]

Aston Martin to reduce its GTE pro program?

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...ffort-in-2021/

[joeb]

Originally Posted by tux

Aston Martin to reduce its GTE pro program?



https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...ffort-in-2021/

Maybe gte pro should only be a le mans class next season? Could be under 10 cars combined competing over two championships in the world.

[GT6]

Well i think Aston martin have to decide what they want to do, they are a make that will always be classed as a sportscar company so they must have a presence in sportscar racing but we can all understand how in todays environment the cost must be controlled,

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by tux

Aston Martin to reduce its GTE pro program?

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...ffort-in-2021/

is the danish #95 car still funded by young driver team as used to be in the recent past or both gtpro cars are financially backed by prodrive/AMR?
Anyway it's just another step to the gte demise
IMSA: corvette vs lmp3 vs part time bmw
WEC: ferrari vs porsche vs maybe amr

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by canaglia

is the danish #95 car still funded by young driver team as used to be in the recent past or both gtpro cars are financially backed by prodrive/AMR?
Anyway it's just another step to the gte demise
IMSA: corvette vs lmp3 vs part time bmw
WEC: ferrari vs porsche vs maybe amr

Good point here. Although it looks like GTLM at the Daytona 24 has a chance to be decent if Risi, Weathertech, and Proton show up which they might. After that though? Yeah, the series should ensure that LMP3 and GTLM run at the same pace to have some sort of racing value in there which I think will be the case. The Corvettes should beat the P3's every time though with all pro drivers and the ability to go further on fuel. Even if a P3 is slightly faster on pace which only might occur when you have a guy with the skill of Colin Braun driving it.

The GTE Pro bit is not looking great. It was awesome from 2017-2019 as everybody knows. It stood out and we had a reason to be excited and watch it. I watch replays of WEC races from 2017-19 far more than 2020 to this point. With the grid now...what is the point when we have SRO GT World Challenge available. Porsche, Aston Martin, and Ferrari all have a presence there plus you get the other GT makes too. In fact the AF Corse cars in GT WC runs almost the extact same paint livery as their WEC cars. Big overlap in drivers too as Pier Guidi was the enduro champion this year now.

[S griffin]

I think we have to keep our fingers crossed. Hopefully we’ll have a good grid at Daytona in both classes, with the traditional teams taking part, no reason why there shouldn’t be. However the rest of the season is looking a little uncertain as you say. How many will do the full season? And will we see close competition between the two classes? Each to their own, but would be nice if the Corvettes and the like could at least mix with the LMP3s

I feel the LMP3 has worked well in IMSA. But if things have looked uncertain in IMSA, look at how much the field has declined in WEC. It was looking good, but since 2019 numbers have been down, but the racing has still been good enough. We had enough this season too, but the series really has been in dire need of a rethink. Hopefully Le Mans next year will still have the numbers. I am sure it will

[deggis]

If people are seriously suggesting balancing LMP3 and GTE then it is definitely time to kill the class.