The four cars of the Heart of Racing team will soon be making the relatively short hop over the English Channel before making their way down to Spa Francorchamps in time for this weekend’s second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
After the earlier postponement of the Qatar opener due to geo-political tensions and conflict within The Gulf, the opening round and proceeding Prologue test were hastily moved to Imola, Italy for a more conventional six-hour race.
It will be another six hour race this weekend that will again beckon the Hypercar and LMGT3 based classes this time around but will also be the team’s final racing opportunity to fine tune their racing package before the 24 Hours of Le Mans that will take place just a month later.
Imola saw a year of continuity within the Heart of Racing’s Hypercar package as Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble reunited within the green #007 car whilst Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen were again together within the sister #009 car.
It was a similar trait across the garage to the team’s #27 Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 as Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Matia Drudi also team up for a second season togther but their #23 Vantage LMGT3 was an all-new affair for 2026.
Last time in Italy saw Gray Newell make his FIA WEC debut alongside the more seasoned campaigner of Le Mans winner Jonny Adam. They were supposed to have been joined by Eduardo Barrichello, but he was on important IMSA duty for the team over in Long Beach, California so his seat was taken by AMR Drivers Academy winner Kobe Pauwels as he also debuted upon the world stage.
Despite the last-minute collation of driving talent, that young crew still managed to deliver a P9 in class finish at the end of that race as did the #007 Hypercar crew of Tincknell and Gamble.
An earlier in the race weekend off for the #009 car saw the team having to build another car from scratch utilising the spare tub but as a result, the #009 car was never quite on the pace from that point forward as they eventually came home P14. The #27 car would also suffer from technical issues later into the race that resulted in Drudi having to pit from P8 in class with ninety minutes still remaining.
Since then, all four cars would have had a full strip down and rebuild in time for this weekend’s coming round with the AMR Vantage LMGT3’s being seen stretching their legs prior to transiting down to Spa over the weekend. The two Valkyrie’s enjoyed similar at Silverstone earlier in the week.
Thursday will see the FIA WEC expected grid of thirty-five cars for the first time with Free Practice 1 and 2 before Free Practice 3 and class Qualifying on Friday with the start to this race being waved off at 14:00hrs local on Saturday.
Photo credits – Team / DPPI Media / social media