A beautiful noise as Aston Martin's V12 Valkyrie Hypercar races in IMSA at Sebring for first time

No matter the results at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Aston Martin's new Valkyrie is guaranteed to generate some noise in its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship debut.

That's an easy assertion to make when a V12 naturally aspirated engine is racing against 12 hybrid-powered cars in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) category.

When Aston Martin rolled out the Valkyrie for the first time two weeks ago in the World Endurance Championship at Qatar, driver Ross Gunn said the engine's throaty roar was "the main puller" for fans drawn to the British luxury automaker's foray into the top level of sports car racing.

"Having the V12 is incredibly special, and I didn't really appreciate it enough before Qatar just how awesome it was," Gunn said during an IMSA videoconference last week. "Having it ring around Qatar, which is a relatively open track so the noise can go anywhere, it still sounded absolutely incredible. I'm super excited to be driving in front of a full house (at Sebring), and I just can't wait to see the reaction of the fans, which I think is going to be incredible.

"We are very early in our development phase, and Sebring is such a difficult circuit. I think the key is just to remain realistic. We have a new fan favorite car. The V12 engine sounds incredible, and everybody's going to love it, but we have to be realistic that we are step by step trying to get closer to the competition. Setting our expectations low to start is definitely the smartest thing."

Beyond just the distinct sound of its powerplant, Aston Martin's Sebring appearance will be notable as the first time that a Le Mans Hypercar (known as LMH, the featured prototype platform in the WEC Series and 24 Hours of Le Mans) will race in GTP against the LMDh prototype platform that is featured in IMSA's premier category.

It's an important step in the vision for the Grand Touring Prototype category, which was rebranded and reintroduced in 2023 with hybrid technology and rule specs that allowed for crossover between the U.S-based IMSA and European-based WEC series. While manufacturers such as Porsche and Cadillac have brought their LMDh cars to the WEC and at Le Mans, Aston Martin will mark the trend finally going in the other direction with a Hypercar racing in IMSA GTP.

Sebring's GTP field will set records for total cars (13 of the 56 on the grid) and manufacturers (six as Aston Martin joins Acura, BMW, Cadillac, Lamborghini and Porsche).

"It'll be great; it's going to bring a lot of different eyes, especially with the sound of that car," said four-time IMSA champion Jordan Taylor, who co-drives the No. 40 Cadillac for Wayne Taylor Racing. " I think it's going to be a fan favorite just from the sound of it. It's going to be interesting to see how it fits in. It's a much different build of a car.

"It's tough for them to debut at one of the toughest tracks. One of their cars had a pretty good Qatar reliability- wise, but Sebring is going to be a whole other animal.

At Qatar, Aston Martin finished in the last two spots of the Hypercar category but scored a moral victory with its No. 009 Valkyrie finishing the race (albeit 23 laps down; its other car, which included Gunn behind the wheel, finished 137 laps down after being retired).

The challenge will be stiffer at Sebring's legendary 17-turn, 3.74-mile layout.

Gunn, who will co-drive the No. 23 Valkyrie with Roman De Angelis, and Alex Riberas, said The Heart of Racing team (a perennial championship contender in IMSA GT categories that is stepping up to GTP) has "no illusions" about the difficulty of tackling the notoriously bumpy asphalt of Sebring.

"To be honest, the priority is to finish, that's the main No. 1 goal," Gunn said. "We're kind of in the deep end, being years behind everybody else, but we like challenges. We had a successful last few years in the GT classes.

"We have to be realistic. We're not ready to be competing with the top guys in the class. That takes time. We have massive respect for our competitors. It's definitely something that I don't say lightly, but we're up against some of the best teams, manufacturers and drivers in the world. And that's a huge challenge. And we are starting from two years behind these guys, and we need to work incredibly hard to get to that level. This year is really going to be a big learning year for us.

"There's so many things (at Sebring) with the severity of the bumps, the curbs and the temperature as well. Basically, every component in the car is put under extreme pressure to get to the end."

Aston Martin likely will be the latest in a long list of famous manufacturers that have struggled during their first season in IMSA's premier division. The dawn of the new GTP era two years ago brought the re-entry of BMW and Porsche to the top prototype class, and both battled issues with durability and pace throughout the 2023 season.

Gunn said there were few takeaways from those struggles for Aston Martin. "Their packages are very different to ours," he said. "Of course, there's lots of things for a while that we've been picking up, watching how certain people prepare (for) qualifying, out laps and restarts. These are things that we've been picking up throughout the years anyway, just being on the grid and showing an interest as a bit of a fan.

"But our package is very different to theirs in the sense that every car is very unique, so there's not that much of 'Oh, they did that in 2023." We're kind of just more focusing on our own package and we'll take it from there."

Despite a lack of similarities with the LMDh competition, the Valkyrie already is drawing a lot of curiosity. Porsche Penske Motorsport also competes in the WEC and had a pit stall alongside Aston Martin at Qatar.

"We kind of got an up-close look at the operation there," Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid said. "Obviously, they're supported by our manufacturer partner Multimatic and looked like they had most of the stuff under control or more under control than I would have thought for their first race.

"I think they're learning that the LMDh and GTP and Hypercar field right now is extremely competitive, and I would be shocked if anybody could show up for their first event and compete for overall wins with the quality of the teams and the drivers and the cars that we have now. So it's tough for me to say where they are in the development program. The one thing I can say is it's a testament to the regulations because it's a V12 naturally aspirated car that sounds great and looks quite different and so to have another manufacturer competing at that level is only a benefit for everyone."

Despite turning countless laps over thousands of miles in testing, both of Porsche Penske Motorsport's 963s finished outside the top 10 in its 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona debut. But the team quickly got acclimated and has consecutive Rolex 24 victories as well as last year's GTP championship.

No. 6 Porsche 963 driver Mathieu Jaminet expects Aston Martin "to be a contender at some point late in the season or early next year." Teammate Nick Tandy, who is part of this year's No. 7 963 that won the Rolex 24, said GTP is tough because "you're not racing against idiots and poor teams.

"These are top-level operations," Tandy said. "Not saying the Aston Martin team isn't, of course. They've got a huge background in motorsport generally. And the people involved in the operation know what they're doing in IMSA, as well as WEC. So yeah, it's not easy. This is the thing; Everything has to be perfect. And with the GTP and the Hypercar technology, there is a lot of development to make all the parts of the car work together even if you're not running the hybrid system,

"As a fan of the sport, it's great and I'll be interested to watch (Aston Martin's) progression."

Pitting a V12 engine against hybrids is an intriguing matchup of fuel efficiency and electronic systems.

Using a formula known as Balance of Performance, IMSA uses regulations to try to keep its cars even. For the BOP at Sebring, the Valkyrie's V12 engine has been reduced by 15 horsepower while also receiving a break on minimum weight.

Though using the V12 on track, Aston Martin will have an electrical motor to help its launch in exiting pit stops (the hybrid cars exclusively use battery power in the pits).

"The key is that obviously we all race to a BOP and I think it's clear that IMSA have done a great job with that in terms of leveling the playing field in the past few years," Gunn said. "Obviously, in the top class, it's going to be a new thing, having a normally aspirated car with the hybrids. There are obviously a few differences in the way that they produce performance and the way that they provide performance. I think the key for us is that having normally aspirated maybe simplified things quite a lot, so there's less things to change, less variables. So I think from that side, it's definitely easier.

"I see a lot of people write that having the hybrid is going to be a massive advantage. And for sure there's differences in the sense that we have to run a little bit more fuel, but the differences are actually quite simple in that regard. So I'm actually very curious to see how it all plays out."

The competition also seems satisfied that there will be no overwhelming competitive advantages for either side.

"The way motorsports is today, the advantages you have will be BOP-ed, and any disadvantage will be BOP-ed to kind of make it as even as possible," Taylor said. "So there's advantages you can have with fuel efficiency or temperatures with the way the brake systems work, the way traction controls intervening with different types of engines. With the way our sport is now, if you're half a second off the pace, you're going to get some more power or less weight and vice versa."

Said Diuguid: "It's up to the series and the sanctioned bodies to make sure we're all competing on equal footing. And we have all the trust in those groups and they've done a good job so far. So looking for a competitive weekend for any engine architecture, whether it's our turbo V8 hybrid or a naturally aspirated V12. I think that's the beauty of sports car racing right now, and the regulations permit any kind of powertrain architecture to compete."

But any real discussions will wait until Aston Martin is competitive.

At Sebring, the team will be making headlines solely with the sound of its V12 and not the results.

"So yeah, our aim is to try and bring the noise to Sebring, try and gain as much mileage as we can because that is really essential to the program at the moment, trying to get as much information about the car," Gunn said. "There's things that we're learning every time we turn a wheel. We're all still very inexperienced with this class, but every time we get in the car it's essential for us because we're getting more and more confident, more and more comfortable."