Aston Martin Returns to Le Mans With a Car That Is Turning Heads
In returning Aston Martin to the top class of the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time since 2012, Ian James, the team principal, said it invoked mixed feelings.
'It's a little bit of trepidation, a little bit of angst, an immense amount of pride and being proud,' he said in an interview in May.
James runs the Heart of Racing team, or THOR, which will have two Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMHs in the Hypercar class at Le Mans.
Aston Martin has won the GT class five times since 2014 with its Vantage. It has not taken the overall victory since Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori did it in the DBR1 in 1959.
James views this year as a developmental season.
'My goals this year are just to have continual improvement,' he said. 'As long as we continue to do that, and we've seen it in America in I.M.S.A. and W.E.C., we are inching closer and closer,' he said, referring to the International Motor Sports Association and the F.I.A. World Endurance Championship.
'I would say performance so far has exceeded my expectations,' he said. 'As long as we keep going in the same direction, then I'll be very happy at the end of the year as we move past the back of the grid, to tickling the middle of it, and I think that will happen.'
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