– Aston Martin has already completed its first race at the season opener of the 2026 World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Imola. After a significant accident during the prologue, the Heart of Racing team had to completely rebuild the Aston Martin #009 (Riberas/Sörensen).
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The incident occurred on Tuesday morning at the Tamburello chicane. Marco Sörensen was on his outlap when he lost control of the Le Mans hypercar and crashed heavily into the track barrier.
The Dane emerged uninjured, but the damage to the chassis was so severe that a replacement was unavoidable. The mechanics completed the rebuild on Thursday morning, two days after the crash on Tuesday.
With a touch of gallows humor, Sörensen commented on the accident to Motorsport.com Netherlands, a sister publication of Motorsport-Total.com in the Motorsport Network: “I simply ran out of talent.”
However, this is not the sole cause. According to Sörensen, the accident happened while warming up the tires: “One of the areas we need to work on as a team is the speed on the outlaps. We need to find ways to get the tires up to temperature faster. I simply overdid it.”
The combination of high engine power and cold tires makes the Valkyrie extremely unpredictable in the first lap, Sörensen continued. All teams are struggling with the new Michelin tires for 2026, which consist of 50 percent sustainable materials.
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In Imola, cool and partly rainy conditions prevailed on Tuesday, making it difficult to get the medium compound into the optimal working window.
No excuses despite new kerbs
There is another factor that Sörensen does not want to use as an excuse: “They repainted the curbs and strangely pulled the paint quite far up. But ultimately, it always comes down to the driver. I probably wouldn’t have crashed if I had driven slower – but that’s always easy to say afterwards,” Sörensen admits.
After a strong second half of the 2025 season, in which Aston Martin already came close to the top 3 in Fuji and Bahrain, expectations are high for the second year of the Valkyrie program. Tom Gamble, teammate of Harry Tincknell in the sister car #007 (Tincknell/Gamble), sees no reason why they shouldn’t be fighting for wins.
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“Last year was about closing the big gaps. This season, it’s the small details that will make the difference,” explains the Brit. If the mechanics still find time during pit stops and the drivers extract the maximum from the package, the podium is the clear goal for the 2026 season.
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