The 2026 endurance racing season erupts into life with a rare double-fronted assault for Aston Martin and its Valkyrie hypercar programme, as the British marque simultaneously contests the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Imola and continues its campaign in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on the streets of Long Beach. It is a weekend that compresses continents, calendars, and competitive ambition into a single, high-revving moment.
At the centre of the storm is Valkyrie, the only road-derived hypercar competing across both of the world’s premier sportscar series. Developed by Aston Martin in collaboration with The Heart of Racing, the car fuses a race-optimised carbon fibre chassis with a modified 6.5-litre V12 that screams toward 11,000rpm in its road form. In competition trim it is restrained to 500kW under hypercar regulations, yet still carries the unmistakable DNA of one of the most extreme road machines ever conceived.
Imola marks the formal beginning of Valkyrie’s second WEC season, following a winter of refinement and data gathering. The two-car entry features the machine driven by British duo Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble, while the entry pairs Denmark’s Marco Sørensen with Spain’s Alex Riberas. All four drivers arrive with shared experience in the programme, having already sampled Valkyrie in endurance conditions from Daytona to Sebring and beyond, a continuity that strengthens the team’s developmental trajectory.
For Valkyrie, Imola is not just a season opener but a measuring stick. The circuit’s abrasive kerbs, elevation shifts and relentless rhythm will expose any weakness in setup or balance. Yet it also offers a stage rich in atmosphere, where the grandstands lean in over the track and endurance racing feels almost theatrical in its intensity.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Valkyrie’s IMSA programme shifts into sprint mode at the iconic Grand Prix of Long Beach. The entry for Ross Gunn and Roman De Angelis enters a tight 1 hour 40 minute battle on one of North America’s most unforgiving street circuits, where precision is measured in millimetres and walls define the racing line.
Long Beach holds a particular resonance for Aston Martin, with history stretching back through decades of competition on the California shoreline. The pairing of Gunn and De Angelis has already shown flashes of competitiveness in the early phase of the IMSA season, including strong endurance runs at Daytona and Sebring, and their familiarity with both the car and each other will be critical as the championship enters its sprint phase.
Within the wider structure of the programme, Aston Martin has also confirmed Mattia Drudi as Official Reserve Driver for Valkyrie, reinforcing the depth of talent supporting the hypercar initiative. His rapid progression through Aston Martin’s GT ranks and prior exposure to Valkyrie machinery underline a growing pipeline of expertise feeding into the project.
Team leadership remains focused on execution as much as outright pace. Ian James of Aston Martin THOR Team emphasises precision across strategy, pitwork and adaptability, while Adam Carter highlights the value of accumulated data from last season’s debut campaign, now being converted into sharper competitive intent.
As the V12 howls across Imola and threads through the concrete canyons of Long Beach, Valkyrie enters 2026 not as an experiment, but as an evolving force. Two continents, two championships, one uncompromising hypercar and a season that begins at full throttle.
