The 007 Aston Martin LMP1 car led all petrol-powered cars and finished fourth overall in its first race at Le Mans.

OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom – In 1959 one the sweetest looking race cars ever to grace the Circuit de le Sarthe won the overall title at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was the Aston Martin DBR1. It also won the World Sports Car Championship that year with the legendary Stirling Moss behind the wheel at the final race of the season, The Goodwood Tourist Trophy.

In 2007 Aston Martin returned to the most famous endurance race with an entry in the LMGT1 class where it was the class winner. The team defended its championship in 2008 and at the end of the year announced that it had decided to move to LMP1 class.

That left Aston Martin Racing Team Principal George Howard-Chappell with a major project – development of a new LMP1 car in six months.

Two of three cars that were entered finished the grueling event with the James Bond 007 car, driven by Jan Charouz, Tomas Enge, and Stefan Mucke, taking fourth overall was well as being the top finishing non-diesel powered car.

Tertre Rouges Time caught up with Mr. Howard-Chappell to reflect on the 50^th anniversary since the team’s historic win at Le Mans.

TRT:All-in-all it has been a bit of a whirlwind year for Aston Martin team — basically developing an LMP1 car from scratch to the race track in six months. The 007 Car finished fourth overall nine laps down to the Peugeot and I believe that is quite remarkable in itself. I would assume that the team will now have the chance to go through a thorough test program in preparation for the 2010 event. Can you give us an idea of what that might look like? Will it include any exposure in any of the ALMS events remaining in 2009 and 2010?

GHC: Yes the result was remarkable and a tribute to very skilful, hard-working dedicated team of people and of course the drivers. Our plans for 2010 are not fixed yet but we are working very hard on settling these in the coming weeks. ALMS activity is not currently planned for 2009 but naturally we would like to go racing there in 2010 and Sebring in particular is an excellent race to do as part of a programme to prepare for Le Mans

The 007 Aston Martin LMP1 car finished fourth overall in its first year of competition at Le Mans.

TRT: There are folks out there in the diesel camps who have said that if one “does the math” that the petrol car can be built to win at Le Mans. These folks have gone with the diesel car because it suits their marketing strategy. Does “your math” come to the same conclusion and is this simply a matter of working the cars to develop be able to translate the speed from qualifying to the 24 hours of the race or are there are things that must also happen?

GHC: I guess those folks were not top of the class in Maths!!. Seriously though there are some established academics who have done the maths and it is clear that the Diesel regulations still hold the advantage. We also took some acceleration measurements this year exiting the last corner at Le Mans (in both Qualifying and the race) where the acceleration of the car is basically a function of its weight and its power (because at lower speeds the drag effect is quite small); and the results show the diesels still have a big advantage. The ACO also has this data and I have every confidence they will react to it.

The fourth place finish by the 007 Aston Martin was a total team victory -- and the Aston Martin crew performed flawlessly.

TRT:  The 007 car ran ran in fourth most of the second half of the race and finished fourth. How much of the lost time were to “teething” problems with the new car and how much would you attribute to the vagaries of racing. 

GHC: The 007 car ran close to fault free although we were ‘nursing’ the engine a little in the second half of the race – having to add water regularly. A few misinformed people are saying we have an unfair advantage with the GT1 engine (Ed. Note: The Aston Martin Racing V-12 engine) against the regular petrol race engines but what they don’t realise is that we are right on the edge of the durability limit and taking some big risks to get the performance level we have achieved.

The 007 Aston Martin lit up the track during the 2009 24 hours of Le Mans.

TRT:  Based on the cost of chassis development, I would assume that the cars that you race next year will be the same body style and chassis with normal updates that might come from your partner at Lola. Is that correct? The assumption is rather than radical new chassis next season will be the normal progression of development. Is that accurate?

GHC: Well there is a famous saying that the No 1 rule in Motor Racing is assume nothing!!

 
As we developed the aero package this year ourselves (which accounts for the major change in looks compared with the Lola coupes) we are quite capable of taking this further. In addition, as I mentioned earlier we are still evaluating our exact plan for 2010. This could involve a new car/chassis, a re-work of the 2009 chassis or we would even consider going GT racing. This really depends on what the ACO are going to do with the regulations and what our partners/sponsors; and Aston Martin would like.

Although the 007 Aston Martin finished fourth overall, the team's plan for 2009 are undisclosed at this writing.

TRT:  From a big picture perspective, what does your time table look like for the opportunity to be able to be dominate in LMP1 endurance racing and specifically the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

GHC: I think it would be arrogant and foolish to think that we could dominate in LMP1 racing. Clearly Aston Martin Racing does not have the huge resources of the big factory teams of Audi and Peugeot but we have shown in the past when competing against GM (General Motors) in GT1 that we are very good at ‘punching above our weight’. In addition Aston Martin is a fantastic brand and the Racing Team is a dynamic group who will always try its hardest. I am sure that when the regulations are adjusted to allow a petrol car to win in LMP1 we will be there to try and pull this off.