Amit Saraswat 
The Vantage GTE made its final appearance in Bahrain at the final round of the FIA WEC 2023. The result concludes the era of Vantage GTE as the most successful car in the LMGTE Am racing. The Vantage GTE secured 33 wins in GTE Am, which is an all-time record for its category.
Japanese entrant D’station Racing team scored its best-ever result in WEC, with the Vantage GTE piloted by 2022 World Champions TF Sport. Liam Talbot (AUS) qualified second in GTE Am and the trio combined, which includes Casper Stevenson (GBR) and Tomonobu Fujii (JPN), finished second, shy of 5 seconds from the victory in the 8-hour race.
The Heart of Racing team also made a double-podium finish, securing its first world championship podium. Heart of Racing’s result is the latest in a long line of achievements for the team with Vantage in the past 13 months of FIA WEC.
The Vantage GTE, which shares its aluminium body frame and 4.0L turbocharged V8 petrol engine, completes the GTE Am era as its most successful car with a record 33 wins and a total of 75 podiums during its racing stint spanning over 11 years. Combining both the GTE Am and GTE Pro classes, the latter of which was discontinued after 2022, Vantage has amassed 52 victories in the WEC’s 85 races and has finished on the podium 119 times.
During its racing stint, the Vantage secured 11 world titles in the world championship, 52 individual victories as well as 5 victories in the 24 hours of Le Mans. Adam Carter, head of endurance racing at Aston Martin, said, “The Aston Martin Vantage GTE has completed every single one of its objectives and covered itself in glory in the process.”
He further added, “A multiple championship-winning race car, Vantage won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both classes and was a force throughout its six-year run in the world championship. It will be rightly remembered as one of the great sportscars in the modern era of the sport. We’re incredibly excited about what’s coming next for Aston Martin in world endurance racing, but we must also be proud of what has been achieved with Vantage GTE.”
The 2023 edition of the FIA WEC marks the end of an unforgettable era of Vantage GTE. The next chapter for Aston Martin in the WEC includes its return to the top class with the Valkyrie hypercar in 2025. In the coming years, Aston Martin aims to continue its legacy in the world of motorsport, both in the hypercar class and the new LMGT3 class.
