Harry Tincknell: "We didn't come to be extras"

Harry Tincknell, what is it like to pilot theAston Martin Valkyrie here in Qatar?

I obviously drove it a bit during testing, but to be here for the first round of the world championship in Qatar, against all our competitors, it’s a fantastic feeling. It’s great to see everyone smiling when they hear the engine and being really excited about the car we have. It’s really great.

The sound of the engine is unanimous!

It’s good to have variety in the championship. We bring that with the naturally aspirated V12 engine, but it’s not just the sound. The look of the car is incredible too. Driving a 007 from a British manufacturer as a British driver is really cool. There’s been a lot of preparation beforehand, but it’s surreal to finally be here for the first time.

You have driven many cars during your career. How different is this one from the others?

I had never driven LMH before. With the Hypercar regulations, these cars are much heavier than before, they are almost like big GTs. I guess that is why many drivers in this category have been promoted by the manufacturers and have immediately shown themselves to be at their best. We don’t have as much grip at low speed as before, so it is more difficult to overtake the GTs. It is one of the most fun aspects for me, to make my way through traffic as quickly and efficiently as possible. It is an aspect that I really enjoy.

What will be the main objective of this first weekend of competition? To reach the finish without major reliability problems?

Certainly if we can bring both cars to the finish line for our first race, which is ten hours long, it would be an incredible achievement. The Prologue went better than expected, but it won't be easy. We're coming in two or three years behind the others. We're improving step by step and I hope we can continue to improve in Free Practice this week, then we'll see where we are in the race.

In your opinion, is not having a hybrid in the car an advantage or a disadvantage?

Each package has its pros and cons, and we'll find out in the long run. Ultimately, the car is a little less complex, which helps with reliability. What's certain is that we didn't come here to make up the numbers. We came here to win. So I hope that in the long run, our package will have more pros than cons.

Without a hybrid, the car will de facto be heavier than the others in terms of fuel at the start of the stints. Aren't you afraid of having more difficulties with tire management and warming them up?

It is true that we will have more weight at the beginning. Thanks to the experience of the LMDh (Tincknell piloted the Porsche 963 n°99 of Proton Competition in WEC last year. Ed.), I know there are things you can do with the hybrid to potentially put more energy into the tire and make it warm up faster. We're still learning and we're still in the early stages of our strategies on the pit laps. You can lose 15 or 20 seconds, so if we can reduce that to 10 or 8, that would make a huge difference over the course of the stint. We don't have the same tools as we would have with a hybrid.

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