Aston Martin's Vantage Misses a First WEC Win by 0.27 Seconds at Monza
Hit and sent to the back early, the #23 Heart of Racing car finished on the winning Porsche's bumper and ended the year fifth in the Teams' Trophy.
The #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 came within 0.270 seconds of its first FIA World Endurance Championship win in Sunday's season-ending 6 Hours of Monza, a race in which it ran last in the LMGT3 class during the first hour. Dudu Barrichello crossed the line second, tucked into the slipstream of the #92 Manthey Porsche shared by Yasser Shahin, Richard Lietz, and Riccardo Pera, according to the race results.
It closes a season in which the Vantage reached the LMGT3 podium six times but won only once, at COTA. Before the Barcelona round in October, the sister #27 car was second in the Teams' standings, 24 points off the lead. It finished the year seventh.
From the gravel to the Porsche's gearbox
Gray Newell started the #23 and was hit by a rival about 40 minutes in. The contact sent the Vantage into the gravel and to the back of the class, but the American kept it on the lead lap and handed over in ninth.
Barrichello, the son of former Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello, had set the fastest lap in qualifying on Saturday, only to lose it to a track limits penalty. On Sunday, he took the car from ninth to third in his first stint. Jonny Adam then kept it inside the top four through a string of Full Course Yellow periods.
Barrichello's final stint decided the result. He passed the second-placed BMW after a long fight, then ran down the leading Porsche while watching his fuel. After the last stop, he was right behind it and spent the final two laps in its tow. Lietz held on at the flag.
"This year was always a learning year, being Gray's first in WEC, so to get three podiums including one at Le Mans, and finish fifth in the championship was more than I could have expected," Adam said.
A strong year, but not a title year
The result left the #23 crew fifth in the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGT3 Teams, with Newell and Adam seventh in the drivers' points. For Newell, a series rookie, Monza was a third podium of the year after third places at Le Mans and COTA.
The titles went to Corvette. TF Sport's #33 finished third at Monza, enough to give Jonny Edgar the LMGT3 drivers' crown and TF Sport the teams' trophy. Overall, the #38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac won the race, while Toyota's #8 crew sealed the Hypercar drivers' title three weeks after Toyota clinched the manufacturers' championship in Barcelona.
The #27 Vantage of team principal Ian James, Mattia Drudi, and Zacharie Robichon was also in the fight for the win until the third hour, when Peter Dempsey's #34 Racing Team Turkey Corvette hit it at Turn 1. It finished 10th. That car's season included the COTA win and second places at Spa and at Fuji, behind Team WRT's BMW, yet it slid to seventh in the Teams' Trophy.
No winter break
The Vantage goes racing again next weekend. Aston Martin says both Heart of Racing cars, along with those of partner teams Blackthorn and Car Blanche by RSL, which took a GTD Pro class win at Petit Le Mans last month, will contest the opening two rounds of the 2026/27 Winter Le Mans Series at Paul Ricard in France on November 13–15.
Adam Carter, Aston Martin's head of endurance motorsport, said that with a little more luck the team could have won more than once and had the pace to contend for the championship. The goal now, he said, is to come back stronger in 2027.
