Aston Martin Valkyrie Is Going To Be “Insane”, Says Max Verstappen After First Drive

Aston Martin brought Red Bull’s F1 pilots Max Verstappen and Alex Albon in for a first test drive of the Valkyrie at the Silverstone circuit.

Aston Martin gave each F1 driver some seat time behind the wheel of the Valkyrie VP1, the first verification prototype that made its public debut at last year’s British Grand Prix. The original test car was joined by the VP2 and VP3 test vehicles for the first time as well.

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Verstappen and Albon provided their valuable feedback to Aston Martin’s Chris Goodwin and both Aston Martin’s and Red Bull’s engineering teams that are currently developing the Valkyrie hypercar.

Power comes from a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine developed by Cosworth, which is able to rev up to 11,200 rpm and produce 1,000 HP and 545 lb-ft (740 Nm) of torque. This makes it the most powerful non-turbocharged engine in the world on its own but it will be coupled with an electric motor and battery pack that adds 160 HP and 207 lb-ft (280 Nm) of torque.

“Of course it’s still in the development phase but you can already feel the pace, which compared to a normal car is… pretty different,” said Max Verstappen. “The Aston Martin Valkyrie and its levels of downforce are incredible, and it looks super aggressive. It was a lot of fun out there.”

“It’s light; it feels sharp. Sure, compared to an F1 car, you’re missing the outright downforce, but you still feel the Gs in the corners and it definitely reacts closer to an F1 car than a normal road car. It’s pretty special. I just need to get my hands on one!”, added Alex Albon.

Aston Martin plans to build a total of eight verification prototypes of the Valkyrie, with each one being subjected to a series of intense testing programmes before the first customer deliveries commence in the latter half of the year.