Haha only one can imagine why. Paul Richard and Testing day both went horrible for them as a public appearance. No doubt a bunch of negative comments towards their new machine made them want to continue testing more behind the curtain rather race testing like Spa.

These guys are really being stubborn. Once they weren’t ready for sebring they should have known there was a major problem . And after paul ricard it was clear the car will not be winning anything this year.

By then they should have brainstormed and came up with the decision to start prepping up the Lola Astons for the rest of the season while privately testing the AMR One.

Who in the ACO committe won’t understand if Aston says they need to switch their lemans entries to the Lola Astons. Even if the ACo were to refuse they should enter the old chassis in the other ILMC races…like spa.

This is not the decision making that gave then 2 lemans wins against corvette.

To think that Adrian Fernandez left acura behind thinking his best chance at lemans was with Aston.

This needs to be thought of as a 2012 effort starting in 2011, and not a rushed and botched 2011 project to win Le Mans.

I’m starting to feel more optimistic about this program now. If they can get three or four good tests and two months of focussed development, Prodrive can turn this project into something more competitive. Reliability needs to be the focus, but if the cars could finish this years race, that would be a great start to a decent 2012 program.

I still hope they add some aero changes and maybe make it prettier, though…

Poor guys!!

Very brave of them to make such a public debut – but jeez… what a disaster so far!

I very much doubt AMR have the resources to race the Lola-Aston whilst simultaneously testing the AMR-One. Compared to Audi and Peugeot, AMR is a very small, privately funded operation. Prodrive know what they’re doing, even if their recent PR with the running of new car hasn’t been great…

Terrible position for AMR to be in so publicly, but going public was there choice. Prodrive hasn’t failed yet and Dave Richards seems convinced they can turn the project around. Best of luck to them.

I find this news……..disappointing.

If they get a finish at le mans it would be a miracle judging on what’s gone on so far. I’m going to miss the Lola astons, at least they would have finished, hope we see the Kronos one.

The news is disappointing, but if they can use the time effectively and perform well at Le Mans then it will be worthwhile.

The new AMR-ONE needs to be tested and improve with Chassis,Aero,and engine. The new LMP1 needs alot done before june for Le Mans!!!!

You know what???? Exit Aston Martin out of (LM)P1!!!!!!
And, believe me, others will follow……. ( exit Le Mans 100% ), ACO has made some awful descisions ( over all the categories )…. and the pay-back is coming… A pitty i’ve bought those tickets for Spa…..

There are two possibilities:
Either the whole concept with the 6 cyl petrol turbo engine is wrong, then the additional testing won’t help.
Or (what I hope) they didn’t have enough time and/or money to do a proper preparation, then more preparation time might help to get a reasonable result in Le Mans.
In any case, I feel sorry for all the good drivers on the lineup like Christian Klien or Stefan Muecke. They deserve a better chance.

I’m sure the ACO would let them switch to Lola-Aston for Le Mans if they wanted to, after all, 4 (including honda) competitive factory teams is better than 3.

Also, I guess this totally puts them out of the ILMC

*better from the ACO’s, & the sport in general’s perspective that is

It is a shame though, Aston Martin has to stay in the sport to keep some chance and hope alive. Even though its hard not to make fun of how horrible their public race testing has gone so far, i do hope they can turn it around and make this car competitive within the next 2 years.

HD, if you don’t like it you should exit the sport as a fan. The ACO shouldn’t be responsible for a team being ill prepared for its season. It was Aston Martin’s choice to focus on supporting the GT1 teams in 2010.

Why would you make those unfounded claims of doom and gloom?

There’s more to spa than Aston martin. Did you know there’s 60 cars on the entry list? Even if they had showed up they would just be little more than a footnote next to the diesels and the GT2 battle. It would be like the token celebrities who show up at NBA games or in F1 paddocks. It’s good to see them around but they have to effect on the show.

A real fan of this sport can’t possibly show up at a race just to watch one team.

I partly agree with @Bamba here. We’re the lucky bunch who live near Spa (2hrs drive) and we’ll obviously go to enjoy this epic grid.

I have to say though, I too dispise the ACO for their pathetic techrules of the moment. Outlawing V10 and V12 engines,only allowing 2 litres for petrol turbo’s,choking the P1′s to not exceed 550hp… All laughable restrictions.

As long as there’ll be a french factory squad running a diesel car in P1 the ACO will never allowe for the petrolregs to run a truely competitive car.

@GTfour
But they might get Peugeot to supply engines to other French teams, OAK, Pescarolo etc.

@ Bamba. Wait and see, i’ll remind you in the future about my prediction and 60, no sorry 58 cars aren’t that kind of a fantastic grid. For instance, seperate the LMS and ILMC grid ( because in fact it’s two races in one ) and the two grids aren’t that great and smaller in comparison with previous seasons ( and i can keep on going this way ). And ALMS is in fact a GT2-grid with some extra cars… Don’t worry, i’m starting my exit as an “Le Mans” ( read : ACO ) fan… And really, i’m not the only one who’s not going anymore to Le Mans…

For as long as lemans has been around there’s better odds of F1 folding than the 24hr disappearing. Even if the LMS or ALMS run into trouble there will still be teams out there wanting to have a go at la sarthe. That in turn will keep those 2 series alive.

If there was no ILMC I believe the teams would just slot back into their respective series.

I think in the long run it’s better to be optimistic and hopeful towards something you love and enjoy.

I’m with Bamba on this one. Firstly, in late 70s, ACO changed their rules so Le Mans couldn’t be part of the WSCC, and in early 90s, after fall of WSCC, tons of cars still ran at Le Mans.

Someone’s been digging through too much bear poop.

You mean ‘Hear Doop’ ? Lol.

Seriously, to say the 1000km’s of Spa are ‘in fact’ two races is just plain silly. I’ll tell you what,it’s even 5 or 6 races in one mate!

To then state that you’re not the only one not going to LM anymore is A)very uninteresting and B) a bit sour don’t you think? The number of spectators has been growing over the last few years and hasn’t shown very deep lows in the history of the race.

Oh well,leaves room for the real Le Mans fans. ;-)

I’m also totally with Bamba on this matter.
There will be 58 fascinating cars to watch on a fascinating circuit – what else to ask for as a real race fan? And what I also mean with this is that a “real race fan” is not only loving one team and hating all the others…
Sure there are several races in one, but with a field of 58 cars it is really useful to have different classes, so that the battle for 30th place also makes sense. That’s the essence that makes endurance racing intestering.
I’m looking forward to the 1000 km of Spa and won’t let it spoil by anything…

Wait a second, if 2011 LMP1 engine specs are more or less the same as 2010 LMP2 engine specs, why didn’t Aston simply use the GT2/GTE Vantage engine??? They were fairly successful with the GT1 engine, so I’m sure that success would have continued.