I am sorry Aston Martin but

[Lazy B'stard]

Another pretty dire performance then. Ugly, slow and unreliable. I hope they decide to withdraw this year and take another year to try and sort it out. There are some good cars on the reserve list that deserve grid slots over that pile of crap.

[oldtimer]

I don't know where its losing time over the course of a lap (fast corners, slow corners, straight line speed, braking. etc)

Yep - all of them 

[monkey]

you forgot to mention the pits - it is losing time in there too - on account of the fact it does not seem to be able to leave them 

[Robbo]

Both Astons pulled from Spa to continue testing instead

[Lazy B'stard]

Both Astons pulled from Spa to continue testing instead

Continue testing???

Dave Richards said on RLM that these cars are too fast and noisy to test anywhere and that is why they continue to test in public at races.

I like Aston as much as anyone, but that car is a lemon. The engine is underpowered and seriously unreliable, its ugly, its slow (the LMP2 Norma set a faster time ), it is just too far back and no amount of testing and development is going to get it up to speed.

Please, please put it away somewhere dark and forget about it. Start again, look at what others are doing, take stock and come back next year with something viable.

And most importantly, please don't rob us of two precious grid slots at this years race.

Its the only way to save a little dignity.

[gt6]

Ruddy shame, was looking forward to seeing them next friday, if they are going to pull out in June lets hope they do so in time for the Kronos car to get in. Aston Martin needs to be there but lets hope they get things sorted

[termietermite]

Only one place for it, imho - back on the drawing board.

[Nordic]

The Spa no show could make the ACO DISq the car and put it out of its misery.

It has already missed Sebring and pretty sure it cannot miss another round without the ACO withdrawing the invite to race.

[Kpy]

The car has been withdrawn from Spa.
That doesn't cancel their entry for the 24 Hours in June. LM 24 Hours entries are entirely independent of LMS entries.

[Lazy B'stard]

The car has been withdrawn from Spa.
That doesn't cancel their entry for the 24 Hours in June. LM 24 Hours entries are entirely independent of LMS entries.

But priority was given to teams who were contesting the ILMC. Kronos did not have the budget to do the series so only made it to the reserve list. Aston would be a big draw yes, but should/ would they have got the nod for two cars knowning now what we know?

Prodrive must know how bad things are and should withdraw. However, much has been said about the four remaining customer cars that have been snapped up by investors. Its now just a cash cow project. They are no better than JLOC who wasted a grid slot with that abortion of a Lamborghini for two years in a row!

[Nordic]

There is a bit of chatter on other forums that the 007 car is entered into the ICLM cup which is different to the LMS. Is it the case that this series requires that you cannot skip more than one race?

I guess once an entry has been granted then the ACO wont rescind it, however if the one Aston did withdraw it would allow in another.

Still maybe Prodrive may turn it around, they still have month and a bit to go and if they know what the issues are then nothing is impossible.

[mgmark]

Sounds like time to dust off proven cars from earlier seasons.  This sounds like an embarassment in the making.  Either that or ditch the engine and put something else in......

MG Mark

[Rhino]

Can't see the aco dsq them or aston pulling out, they have a big old hospitality unit which they have paid for and need to fill.
Let's hope they at least have an engine which has full power and lasts for a few hours!
Did they run the hybrid system at the test day?

[Kristof]

Sad news hearing they pull out from the Spa race, but the best decision they could make.  Makes it easy for me too, no Astons means no reason to take a day off for the practice sessions next week.

I really hope Prodrive can do some magic by the 24h, but I guess they'd better pull out of the big one too (or put in another engine, which has proven some reliability), otherwise it could be a real embarrasment. 

[Radar]

Seem to remember that Audi brought along a dog of a coupe a few years ago which could barely manage a lap. Then a few years later they painted it green, called it a Bentley and it won. Well, that's almost what happened - and it does show that the first version of a new concept can be rubbish, but it can be turned into something good.