Leading Formula One aerodynamicist Adrian Newey will help design the Aston Martin Valkyrie race car destined to compete in the World Endurance Championship's new Hypercar class.

Newey is currently chief technical officer of the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing F1 team and throughout his career has designed successful F1 racers for multiple teams, including Williams and McLaren.

But in a recent partnership with Aston Martin, he helped design the Valkyrie and thus fulfilled a lifelong dream to design a road car. Now he will help fine tune the Valkyrie's design for the racetrack, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer confirmed to Car Sales in an interview published Thursday.

Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey

"He's the original architect of the Valkyrie and the standard he set for the road car was always that it would be quicker than an LMP1, so naturally he's involved," Palmer said.

LMP1 is the prototype class that the Hypercar class replaces starting from the 2020/2021 WEC season. Since the race cars competing in the Hypercar class are derived from production models, the costs of competing are much lower compared to the current prototype class, making it more attractive to automakers. Already confirmed are Aston Martin, Toyota and America's Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, and more are expected to follow come the 2020/2021 season.

Considering the Hypercar class will be slower than the current LMP1 class, it means the Valkyrie road car will actually be faster than the race car, something backed up by Palmer in his comment that the Valkyrie race car will be slower and have less power than its road-going counterpart.