Gamble’s team-mate Harry Tincknell was heavily involved in the development of the Valkyrie LMH as part of his role at Multimatic, the company that Aston Martin partnered with to co-develop the car.
Tincknell, a two-time Le Mans 24 Hours class winner, was surprised by how linear the team’s upward trajectory had been across the season.
“Every single race this year, we’ve just got better and better and better,” the 34-year-old told Motorsport.com. “We’ve come from basically a standing start to getting a podium at Petit Le Mans. And at Fuji, there was a chance of a podium as well.
“That’s very unusual, to just get better and better and better every single race. Usually, you sort of improve a bit and then you have a bad race and [then] you improve a bit, and you’re hoping that the average trend’s higher across the year; whereas we’ve just been getting better every time.
“But that’s because we’ve got a great team behind us. Every weekend they’re bringing updates and putting it on the car, and they’re working, which is really exciting.”
How Aston Martin has been making constant progress
While homologation rules prevent teams from making any major changes during the season, Tincknell believes Aston Martin was able to make major headways in smaller areas to improve both the performance and the reliability of the Valkyrie.
“We have unlocked a lot of learning in the mechanical set-up of the car. We’d done so little testing before we started, so we were sort of learning on the job,” he explained.
“We understand the characteristics of the car a lot more, and we’ve brought a lot of updates on the software side of things as well. Things like differential braking systems that really help in [improving] the drivability of the car and allowing us to push harder.
“Obviously, you can’t develop the aero or change any sort of suspension items or anything like that during the year. So most of the improvement has come from understanding the car better and then software updates.”
#31 Cadillac Action Express Cadillac V- Series.R: Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, Frederik Vesti, #23 Aston Martin Thor Team Aston Martin Valkyrie: Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis, Alex Riberas, #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Mathieu Jaminet, Matt Campbell, Julien Andlauer
Aston Martin can target victories in 2026 – Tincknell
Given Aston Martin’s strong end to the year in both the WEC and IMSA, Tincknell is confident that the British manufacturer can become an even more potent challenger in 2026, with victories firmly within its reach.
“If we can continue to improve over the winter and continue this progress during the season, then there’s no reason why we can’t be fighting right at the front, like we’re starting to do now,” he said.
“We feel like we belong in the championship now.
“We have a car that is a fan favourite. Everyone loves the noise. But we’ve now got a car that we can be proud of the performance as well.
“But we’ve got to keep working hard. Everyone else will be as well. I think we can have a really good shot at winning races next season.”
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