Continued concerns with Balance of Performance adjustments have prompted Young Driver AMR to withdraw the No. 95 Aston Martin Vantage V8 from the upcoming penultimate round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season, the 6 Hours of Shanghai.
The news drops the number of Vantage V8s on the grid to four and sees the total number of cars set for the race fall to 31.
“The No. 95 Young Driver AMR car is entered by Aston Martin Racing on behalf of Young Driver AMR,” Team Principal John Gaw explained.
"Young Driver AMR and their sponsors have chosen not to race in Shanghai this weekend.”
What was to be the seventh GTE-Pro car for the weekend to be driven by Christoffer Nygaard, Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim as one of only two cars in the class to prepare a three-driver lineup for the weekend, the No. 95 Aston Martin and all other Vantage V8s were issued a 0.5 mm reduction in air restrictor size following mid-June's 24 Hours of Le Mans before it gained 0.2 mm back before the last time out at Fuji Speedway.
Gaw, though, says the changes have not helped them at all as frustration builds; the No. 95 last found the GTE-Pro podium at the second round of the 2015 season back in early May at Spa.
“Before the last round in Fuji, the ACO re-adjusted the engine air-restrictor size of the Vantage GTE but it still wasn’t enough to enable us to fight for the podium in the GTE-Pro class," said Gaw of the wet weekend at Fuji. “Only thanks to clever strategy and some fantastic driving were we able to come close to winning GTE-Am."
Gaw noted that Shanghai "looks like it will be a similar story" and that due to the performance deficit the car has a "huge challenge ahead."
With the withdrawal of the No. 95, two Aston Martins remain in GTE-Pro and GTE-Am each and will be piloted by unchanged driver lineups beyond Richie Stanaway's return to the No. 99 after missing Fuji due to GP2 complications.
The 6 Hours of Shanghai is set to go green at 11:00 pm ET on Saturday, October 31.