Aston Martin Racing Academy winner and 2019 British GT4 champion Tom Canning will be sampling the Aston Martin Vantage AMR at Sunday's WEC rookie test at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Canning headlines a group of four drivers driving for Aston Martin on Sunday. The British youngster will be joined by Lasse Sorensen, the younger brother of current Aston Martin GTE Pro driver Marco Sorensen, Aston Martin Racing Junior Andrew Watson and Gabriel Aubry, who currently competes with Jackie Chan DC Racing in the championship's LMP2 category.
I think I’m not going in with too many expectations for pace and overthinking it," Canning told Motorsport Week about the test. I’m just going in with a bit of a clear mind, trying to prepare for it as best as I can and making sure I’m improving every time I get in the car, every lap, learning the car and getting a feel for what’s underneath me, just sort of generally getting a feel."
The 17-year-old won the British GT4 title earlier in the year with Ash Hand, driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 alongside Ash Hand. Canning believes the test will aid him in his future endeavors in GT racing.
"It can’t hurt to get a feel for the car. In my head, it’s a bit of prep, that whole day is just a prep day for anything I do in the future, because it’s obviously going to help with GT3 as well," he continued. "I’ve done twenty laps in a GT3 car now, so still not a lot and it’s actually quite a similar car. It’s actually harder to drive, with no ABS. So I think it should help me in the GT3 if I was to do any more of that.
To be honest, the way I’m looking at it, it’s just seat time in anything, at the moment, because I’ve still not got a lot of experience. I’m seventeen, I’ve done GTs for two years, so I think any seat time I can get is just perfect."
