Tincknell Convinced Valkyrie AMR-LMH Has “Good Potential”

Photo: Drew Gibson/AMR

Harry Tincknell says he’s convinced that Aston Martin’s all-new Valkyrie AMR-LMH has “good potential” from the evidence he has seen so far in testing ahead of the car’s FIA World Endurance Championship debut at the end of this month.

The British driver was announced as one of the first two drivers for the newly-formed Heart of Racing Team-run Aston Hypercar outfit, and will share the No. 007 car with Tom Gamble for the full season and Ross Gunn at selected events.

Multimatic-contracted Tincknell makes the move to Aston having driven Proton Competition’s customer Porsche 963 since it came on stream in mid-2023.

Having been part of the Valkyrie’s development since its first runs in the UK last July, the 33-year-old is optimistic about the car’s capabilities ahead of the its much-anticipated race debut in this month’s Qatar 1812km WEC opener.

“The development of the car has gone well,” Tincknell told Sportscar365. “The DNA of the car is strong, hopefully.

“Obviously it’s not going to be easy coming in two or three years behind and for sure there will be a learning curve. In any development program, you always want a few more months and at some point you have to get going.

“But we tested in Qatar at the end of last year and of course with a brand-new car you are learning every time you are on track.

“There are always niggles and everything but I think overall the development curve has been a good upward trend.

“I think we’re going to Qatar in as good a shape as we can and I’m really intrigued. We haven’t really driven with other cars on track so it’s hard to really know.

“But [considering] the feeling in the car versus the LMDh I drove last year, I think it’s a car with good potential, definitely.”

Tincknell will be racing a car built to LMH regulations for the first time with Aston, albeit to the sub-class that applies to road-going machinery, with his only Hypercar experience up until now being in LMDh with Porsche.

Asked if the Valkyrie required a different driving style to the 963, he observed that LMDh cars are generally considered trickier to drive.

“It’s definitely different [to the Porsche], but I don’t know if it’s an LMH vs LMDh thing,” said Tincknell.

“I feel like you’re not going to find many LMDh drivers who would say it’s an easy car to drive. It’s very on the limit; I think you see many mistakes and crashes that happen with really good drivers. They are difficult to drive.

“I would say the LMH cars, when I look at the Ferrari and Toyota, you see slightly less mistakes from them. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.”

He added: “Potentially the LMH cars, just starting from a blank canvas instead of starting with a stock LMDh, potentially there are advantages there. But there are disadvantages in other areas. Honestly, the exciting thing is that we really don’t know.

“But the car looks amazing, sounds amazing, and I think it’s great for the championship to have that variety.”

Tincknell added that he is happy to be working with Aston Martin again for the first time since the 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans, when he was part of the British marque’s GTE-Pro class-winning crew together with Alex Lynn and Maxime Martin.

“Definitely excited to be back,” said Tincknell. “We only did one race together and it went pretty well! Really looking forward to it.

“It’s a really exciting time in my career to be back fighting for overall wins in a factory team, and hopefully it will be the case for many years to come.”

John Dagys contributed to this report