Timo Bernhard, Porsche, Nurburgring Nordschleife, 2018

Valkyrie could beat Porsche’s Nurburgring Nordschleife record – Horner

2018 F1 season

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says Porsche’s record Nurburgring Nordschleife lap time is unlikely to be beaten by a Formula 1 car.

However he told RaceFans the track version of the Valkyrie hypercar it is developing in conjunction with Aston Martin will be “a contender” for the outright record.

Porsche used a development of its LMP1 919 Hybrid to beat the 35-year-old course record for the Nurburgring Nordschleife on Friday. F1 champions Mercedes have already ruled out an attempt at beating the time.

Asked whether Red Bull would attempt to beat the time with its F1 car Horner pointed out Porsche’s 919 Tribute, which no longer complies with the WEC’s LMP1 specification, has already out-performed F1 machinery.

“The problem is their LMP1 car broke the record in Spa which was beating a Formula 1 car time,” he told RaceFans in an exclusive interview. “I’m not sure a Formula 1 car could actually do it.

“But I think that the Valkyrie, certainly the track version of the Valkyrie, could be a contender.”

The Valkyrie road car has been created in collaboration between Red Bull and its title sponsor Aston Martin. The brief for producing the track version of the car was to rival LMP1 and Formula One performance levels.

All 25 examples of the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro have already been sold, though Horner says the company won’t have a running prototype of the car until late summer.

The car is expected to weigh 1,000kg and produce a similar amount of downforce, and will be propelled by a 1,100bhp V12 engine. Horner believes it will be able to rival the Porsche’s record lap time of 5’19.546 for the 20-kilometre track.

“It’s a few years off because the car’s still on the drawing board,” said Horner, “but I’d be surprised if that car didn’t have the potential to do that.”

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Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro

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16 comments on “Valkyrie could beat Porsche’s Nurburgring Nordschleife record – Horner”

  1. Sush meerkat
    1st July 2018, 11:49

    I find it funny and strange that what is technically a commercially available and potentially road legal car can beat F1 machinery in terms of lap times.

    I know this is hyperbole with a lot of what ifs, but still it’s odd.

    1. a Tesla model S can beat an f1 car to 100kph, and that’s about all people drive up to on most roads, anyway. also many road cars sound better than an f1 car. but even if this Aston beats an f1 car, it will cost as much as an f1 car, so should be as good, and the limited production will probably also mean it will need servicing every couple thousand kms.

      1. It cant it will break. Electric cars are cack.

  2. Well, if an F1 car where equally unrestricted for the purpose I bet it could do it. It would be interesting, for sure.

  3. The difference is that an F1 car exists, the Valkyrie does not!

  4. Not good comments from Horner. He’s obviously talking about a restricted F1 car being unable to beat the unrestricted LMP1. Then goes on to say a car on the drawing board could be a contender.
    A non story really.

    1. What it is, in effect, is an excuse for Horner to do a bit of cross promotional work for a commercial partner of the team, which has the added benefit of putting his team in the headlines as well – essentially, it is solely to build hype around the Valkyrie by saying “well, we can’t beat that record, but we have something in the works that will be even better than that – fancy putting a nice fat pile of cash down to buy a Valkyrie?”.

      1. Sush meerkat
        1st July 2018, 13:42

        All the Valkyrie’s are already sold though, so it’s purely promo work for the sake of marketing.

        The Aston martin red bull car has been talked about for so long I thought it was out already, turns out not even Newey’s drawers protractor has been turned in anger yet

        1. Ha, I read that as “turned in angle yet”!

  5. Maybe the valkyre could beat the red bull but I doubt it would be a match for the Mercedes or ferrari… Haha

    All one has to do is look at the laps people have done on sims like iracing and Assetto corsa and r factor 2 to see that f1 machinery is capable of 5 minutes flat or even lower, especially 2017 and 2018 f1 machinery. And that’s still a car limited by f1 regulations. Just think what merc or ferrari could achieve by modifying their 2017 or 2018 cars, removing unnecessary weight, adding more downforce as was done with the 919 tribute, active aero eg bigger DRS, etc etc.

    1. or just build a car with no consideration to any rules like this.

      fictional car, for a video game, but i think i remember that Adrian Newey was involved so the design so it was based on real world possibilities but includes all technology that’s been banned by F1 over the years, so active suspension and the suction fan are included.

  6. Oh man, I love this so much. It’s one of the most exciting things in motorsport in ages. I soo hope this competition gets rolling and more manufacturers/parties get inspired and involved.

    Just like there’s been the continuous race for breaking the land world record speed, why hasn’t there been a race for building the world’s fastest racing car? No rules, no limitations, just a race of human ingenuity and engineering.
    I want to see Spa being lapped in a minute and 10 seconds! Is it possible? I want to know.

  7. The 919 Tribute weighs less than 900 kilos and produces 1160 bhp with (i’m just making an assumption here) maybe 1000-1500kg of downforce. How in this planet Horner thinks that a car that weighs 900 kilos with 1100 bhp and 1 ton of downforce is going to be capable of beating the 919 is beyond me. But sure thing Christian, you do you

    1. I suppose that it is possible Horner believes that their Newey designed aero is more efficient, and the active part makes a larger difference then on the 919, which might mean it has less drag and could gain on the straights. Or indeed it is a good marketing story but little more indeed @xenif1

    2. Congrats Erzan, you just won this weeks predictions championship!

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