Maxime Martin will leave the ranks of Aston Martin at the end of the season. The 36-year-old Belgian has raced for the British firm for the past five seasons, taking a class win at the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Maxime Martin He is ready to face a new stage in his sports career. The Belgian driver and Aston Martin Racing (AMR) have announced that they will part ways at the end of this season, so the 36-year-old Belgian driver will be free to sign for another manufacturer. Rumors suggest that it could end up in BMWa brand with which it has already competed for five years in Europe.
The Uccle driver began his career in single-seaters but quickly switched to touring cars and GT vehicles. After passing through the extinct GT1 category, a championship in which he achieved his first international weight victories, Maxime Martin signed for BMW for the 2013 season. By then he had already contested Le Mans three times, although a year later he landed with the German brand in the DTM, a category in which he was present until 2017.
Maxime Martin has competed at a high level with Aston Martin Racing, both in the WEC and IMSA
Without obtaining great results in the DTM, although won the 24 Hours of Spa with BMW in 2016Martin decided to change the scene and became a factory driver for Aston Martin Racing in 2018, a campaign in which he combined his presence in the brand’s GTE project in the LMGTE-Pro class of the WEC with his participation in the British GT with one of the Jestream Motorsport GT3s. In the two biannual seasons in the WEC, Maxime achieved several successes.
The most outstanding was in the 2019-20 campaign, since Martin claimed class victory in the LMGTE-Pro category at the 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Alex Lynn and Harry Tincknell. Already away from the WEC, this season he has defended the interests of the Heart of Racing Team, a structure with which he has achieved a couple of victories. In fact, the formation is one of the outstanding squads of the GTD class.
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new stage
Though Maxime Martin He has not defined where he will compete in 2023, he has said goodbye to Aston Martin in a statement: «For me it’s time to move on, pointing to the start of a very exciting new chapter in my career. After an incredible journey of five years it is time to say goodbye to the Aston Martin Racing family».
“With Aston Martin Racing I have achieved some of the best results of my entire career. Definitely, winning the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours in the LMGTE-Pro class was truly amazing. I will never forget the taste of that wonderful victory» added the Belgian driver.
Return home?
We will have to wait for the next few weeks to find out the direction that Maxime Martin is going to take, although different French-speaking media indicate that the belgian is ready to return to the bosom of BMW. Far from the LMDh program of the German brand, Maxime would be one of the pillars of the GT3 program, since the brand will need to distribute the talent of its drivers among a greater number of series.
In fact, the rumors go a step further and point out that Martin would join Team WRT, also a Belgian structure that will compete from next season with the BMW M4 GT3. In fact, it is expected that this Monday the team will be able to complete the first test with what will be its new reference vehicle.
Photos: Aston Martin Racing / IMSA