Tom Gamble admitted he’s growing weary of waiting for Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Valkyrie to finally stand on the World Endurance Championship podium, after another near-miss at Monza last weekend.
The No. 007 car, shared by Gamble and Harry Tincknell, crossed the line in third at the season finale after a late surge from Gamble, but a 20-second penalty for running with tire pressures too low pushed them back to fourth.
Shortly after, they were hit with a more substantial 145-second sanction for using too much energy during the race’s final hour.
That combination left the Aston ultimately classified in 12th place, ending its second WEC campaign without a podium appearance.
“There have been a few fourth places and what could’ve been a podium today taken away,” Gamble told reporters when asked whether the prospect of securing that first top-three result had sharpened his focus even more.
“When we finally get there, which I’m very confident will be very, very soon, the feeling’s going to be amazing.
“Hopefully it’s sooner rather than later because I’m get bored of waiting for it now.”
Aston Martin has been testing an updated version of the Valkyrie that is due to be introduced next season in a bid to further boost its fortunes.
Gamble said the Monza contest became a “very energy management race” in the final stint and the team “miscalculated a little bit,” which left him using too much energy.
However, Gamble believes that had a Full-Course Yellow or Virtual Safety Car been called when Malthe Jakobsen and Alex Lynn clashed in the final minutes, leaving Lynn’s Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R stranded at the side of the track, then he would have avoided a penalty.
“I was trying everything I could in the car but it was tricky at the end because I obviously didn’t want to lose a position to the Ferrari in the hope that yellow was going to come,” said Gamble of those closing laps.
“It should’ve come, I don’t know why we were driving past a car stationary on the track flat out.”
Of the decision to stay out in the final half hour, he added: “There was talk at one point of coming in and doing a splash but I think they just took the risk to try and get it to the podium.”
“Nevertheless it’s a day of positives and negatives. It’s frustrating right now but, again, we came into today expecting to be outside the top-ten on pace and we were one of the quickest cars so I don’t think we can complain too much.”
Gamble and the team knew a penalty would be forthcoming and therefore said there “wasn’t really any celebration on the in-lap” after keeping the No. 51 Ferrari 499P at bay.
“We’ll learn from the mistakes we made today and take the positives because there is a lot of positives with the pace we had moving through the field was really good and our raceability to overtake cars was amazing,” he said.
The Briton described the closing stages of the race as being “great fun with some nice moves” as he was “pretty fired up” to get that podium.
Such a result had not seemed possible earlier in the contest when Heart of Racing’s attempts to go off strategy by pitting early were continually thwarted.
The No. 007 Valkyrie twice pitted moments before a VSC was called, giving the vast majority of its rivals a huge time advantage when they then stopped shortly afterwards.
“The second time we actually dropped a lap down momentarily, which was a bit touch and go,” Gamble explained.
“Luckily, the leaders took tires so we could get ourselves back in front. But the team did a great job to get us back in the hunt for the podium.”
“Every strategy gamble, pardon the pun, was going against us but it can go that way sometimes.
“It’s nice to know the potential’s there for the podium and it’s great to be up there fighting with the top manufacturers and fingers crossed next year we can finally get onto that podium because it’s never seemed so close.”
