After decades of absence from the division, Ford Performance is heading back to international prototype racing in 2027. There’s a lot in store for the forthcoming Le Mans Daytona hybrid (LMDh) spec entry, which is confirmed for the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). But what really sets the project apart from the competition is the fact that it will operate as a Ford factory team, giving it a leg up on the rest of the field.
In an interview with Road & Track, Rushbrook is confident that the factory program strategy will serve The Blue Oval well in the long run. Many competitors in the prototype racing field – including Ferrari, Porsche, and BMW – operate as partnership teams instead of full in-house outfits. It’s all an about-face from Ford’s first prototype efforts in the late 1960s, when The Blue Oval partnered with Shelby American to get its race cars on track.
“The landscape in sports car racing has changed, in terms of how the entries are managed and everything else, so the right way to go to WEC, to go race at Le Mans is a two-car effort, with a focused factory effort,” Rushbrook told R&T. “In all of our programs, whether it’s Mustang GT3, Dakar, in Formula 1, we have our engineers inserted into key positions where they can contribute and benefit, and it’ll be the same with the LMDh program.”
He added, “So as we do the design and development of the car, and the engine, the power unit program, and ultimately racing of it, it will be our engineers deeply involved for our entire journey.”
As a reminder, while Ford is confirmed for the FIA WEC Hypercar class, it has not yet announced if it will compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP class.
Interestingly, Ford’s factory efforts in the FIA WEC contrast its foray into Formula One racing, where it has taken a more collaborative approach by partnering with Red Bull Racing rather than fielding a full factory team.
Comment
By ‘factory’ I assume they mean Canada’s Multimatic?