The British sports car brand has undergone a massive mentality shift that takes a page right out of Enzo’s playbook.
In an unprecedented move, Aston Martin has revealed three cars on a single day, with two of them being motorsport competitors (the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and the AMR24 Formula 1 racer) and one being the new roadgoing Vantage sports car. Dubbed “three new jewels in the crown of high performance,” the cars were unveiled simultaneously at the AMR Technology Campus at Silverstone, with the triple reveal representing a momentous shift in the brand’s attitude toward business that could finally put it in a position to challenge Ferrari in more ways than one.
The relevance of Silverstone has more significance than you might realize, as Formula 1 at Silverstone dates back to 1950 – the same year the Vantage name was first used as a high-performance engine upgrade on the Aston Martin DB2.
Stroll Taking A Page From Enzo’s Playbook
74 years later, Aston has dubbed the new Vantage the most driver-focused version of the nameplate ever built, with the GT3 variant looking to build on massive success over the last decade and enhance the ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ philosophy that was so popular all those years ago and has seen a resurgence in the modern motoring era.
This new-look Aston Martin is starting to bear similarities to another iconic name in the automotive world. Another automaker with a base of operations alongside a race track, and one which has leveraged its motorsport activities to sell road cars (arguably only selling road cars to fund racing) for decades: Ferrari.
Motorsport First
That’s because Aston Martin has adopted a motorsport-first approach, rapidly building momentum in a way we haven’t seen in some time.
Last year, just a few years into its existence as a formalized Formula 1 team, Aston achieved nine podiums and 280 Championship points – its best-ever tally thanks to Fernando Alonso. Meanwhile, its GT3 racing exploits with the Vantage over the last few years have seen the accrual of 52 class wins and 11 world titles between 2012 and 2023 with the Vantage GTE.
And there’s potentially more motorsport success on the horizon, as Aston wants to take the Adrian Newey-designed Valkyrie hypercar to Le Mans in 2025.
The Youngest Vehicular Lineup In Decades
On the roadgoing side of the business, Aston long seemed destined for bankruptcy, dabbling in old platforms, older engines, and with no ingenuity in sight. But that’s changed of late, with the new DB12 and now a new Vantage being the first two models of a new generation.
While it may still use AMG-sourced engines (heavily revised after poaching the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8’s lead engineer from the Germans), it’s ditched the old Mercedes infotainment system in favor of an in-house system worthy of the 21st-century.
The British brand’s oldest model currently on sale is now the DBX SUV, which was a necessary evil to turn the automaker profitable when it launched in 2020. But the DBX is on the verge of a massive overhaul, and it predates the involvement of Lawrence Stroll, who brought on board the likes of Tobias Moers to oversee the creation of the DBX707. Having driven the 707 at its global launch in Italy, I can tell you it’s one of the meanest super-SUVs on planet Earth, and an updated DBX is highly likely to be a smash hit.
Formula 1 Technology For The Road
On the horizon, Aston Martin has the new Valhalla supercar in the works, which itself has undergone a huge amount of development with assistance from Formula 1 engineering experts.
These models are not just important halo cars for the brand, which just a few short years ago we’d describe as “severely ailing,” but they also create a tangible link between Aston Martin’s on-track activities and its road cars. And those ties will only deepen, as Aston Martin Performance Technologies (AMPT), a spin-off technological arm of its F1 team, will play an advanced role in the development of future road cars.
This much was reaffirmed by Stroll at today’s reveal. “Today’s celebration of high performance also highlights the burgeoning relationship between our road and race programs,” said Stroll “with Aston Martin Lagonda now benefitting from the exceptional pool of engineering talent, experience and knowledge forged in Formula One and harvested through Aston Martin Performance Technologies.”
He expanded on this, claiming that “high-performance motorsport technologies is something we can maximize even further through our next generation of sports cars and endurance motorsport strategy.”
If this attitude sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same one Porsche has leveraged for years in creating the best roadgoing sports cars ever made, and Ferrari has seen business boom in recent years, with motorsport being a catalyst for incredible new customer projects like the 499P Modificata – a customer version of the Le Mans-winning 499P hypercar.
Aston Martin Has Found Its Mojo
It seems Aston Martin has realized that it can’t stay in business trying to build gentlemen’s sports cars with archaic engines and interiors that rely on nothing more than charisma, style, and the legacy of a once-great automaker. That legacy might have historical meaning, but in the current automotive climate, it won’t sell cars. But performing at the top level of global motorsports and then imbuing those traits in your everyday sports cars and supercars will, and it’s a surefire way to attract the multi-millionaire clientele that typically shop for Ferraris, McLarens, Bugattis, and Lamborghinis.
Aston Martin has become a motorsport-first automaker, which is rapidly elevating its stature among the wealthy elite and creating a brand that doesn’t just talk the talk, but walks the walk. In turn, Aston Martin is becoming something it hasn’t been for quite some time… desirable.
While the likes of Jaguar flounder and McLaren struggle to stay afloat, Aston seems to be thriving. And if it can continue on this trajectory, it could emulate the success of Ferrari. Bravo Aston Martin.
