Nurburgring 24 Hours winner David Pittard, GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup champion Mattia Drudi and Henrique Chaves, a class winner at the Le Mans 24 Hours, have been added to the Aston Martin Racing roster for 2024.
They join stalwart AMR drivers Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim, who have been re-signed on new long-term contracts, while Jonny Adam, Ross Gunn and Valentin Hasse Clot have also been retained.
Darren Turner, a three-time Le Mans class winner with Aston, will remain with the marque for a 20th season on a wider deal that includes development duties with Aston Martin Lagonda.
Charlie Eastwood has left Aston to become a Corvette Racing driver with Chevrolet.
Aston has yet to confirm full programmes for any of its drivers, but Sorensen will race the new evolution version of the Vantage GT3 in the World Endurance Championship’s new LMGT3 class with the AMR-run D’station Racing squad.
The Dane will have additional programmes that have yet to be announced.
Gunn will remain part of Heart of Racing’s GT Daytona Pro assault on the IMSA SportsCar Championship in North America.
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
#30 Frikadelli Racing Team Ferrari 296 GT3: David Pittard
Pittard, who won the Nurburgring enduro this year racing a Frikadelli Ferrari, becomes a full AMR driver after racing Aston machinery for the past two seasons.
The 31-year-old Briton was part of the NorthWest AMR line-up in the 2022 WEC, finishing second in GTE Am, and made three starts in IMSA long-distance rounds with Heart of Racing in 2023.
“Joining Aston is the realisation of a dream,” said Pittard.
“If you look at who wins the big endurance races, it is factory drivers so I knew that to fulfil my long-term career aims I needed to be with a factory that wants the same as me.”
Pittard was announced as an Aston factory driver ahead of his 2022 WEC campaign, before it was clarified that he was employed by NorthWest.
Full factory status would have compromised his silver status under the FIA’s system of driver categorisation.
Drudi is moving to Aston from Audi, which has ended its factory involvement in the GT3 for 2024, after winning the GTWCE Sprint Cup title alongside Ricardo Feller with the Tresor team.
The 25-year-old Italian said he is “honoured to be joining Aston Martin as a works driver” and that “it is the right environment for me to develop as a driver”.
Chaves was part of the TF Sport’s successful WEC GTE Am assault with Aston in 2022 alongside Sorensen and Ben Keating, joining the line-up for the second round and going on to win the class at Le Mans.
This year the Portuguese, 26, raced for the Garage 59 McLaren team in the GTWCE.
“To have the opportunity to represent this iconic brand as a works driver means everything to me,” said Chaves.
Aston Martin head of endurance motorsport Adam Carter said: “As we prepare to embark on a new era for Aston Martin in endurance racing, with the advent of newly-developed evolutions of our Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and GT4 platforms, and of course the Valkyrie Hypercar programme that becomes a racing entity in 2025, we’ve assembled an ultra-competitive works driver line-up.
“This group of drivers knows how to win and is expert at extracting every ounce of performance from a GT car, while at the same time harnessing the endurance capabilities necessary to win at this level.”