Why Aston Martin went to P1?

[Lola T70]

But do they have the funding to compete with a full factory team?

I think they can technically do it but not sure about financially. The mothership of Aston does not put much in I would say.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by gustavobamba

In Autosport.com they said that prodrive isn´t thinking (for 2011) in F1, but instead in the WRC, what this could signified to the LMP1 Program?

I hope they really built an LMP1 for the next season

The release from Dave Richards mentioned both a WRC program and putting energy into the Aston Martin Racing sportscar programs so there should not be a conflict between the two. Prodrive is more than capable of running multiple programs if the budgets are in place.

[deggis]

The press release from 15/4:

"At the same time, we continue to expand our activities with Aston Martin in all categories of sportscar racing, in the USA, Europe and at Le Mans."

http://www.prodrive.com/p_releases.html?id=263

[broadrun96]

Any possibility the GT2 Vantage lump could appear in a new LMP program or would they start from scratch with a purpose built racing engine? I couldn't remember if it was ever sorted and ran strong and so would be considered a worthwhile project, if it's even eligible as one of the homolgated GT2 pieces.

[Tim the Grey]

It ran for 23 hours at Le Mans last year, till the gearbox died.
Dunno how it stands in terms of relative power compared to Porker and Fiats though. I'll have to talk to JMW at Silverstone...