Ford back to Le Mans for outright victory bid

Ford will return to the Le Mans 24 Hours to fight for overall victory as a part of a World Endurance Championship campaign with an LMDh prototype in 2027. 

The US giant has announced that it will attempt to repeat its triumphs at the French enduro in 1966 to ’69 with the Ford MkII, MkIV and the GT40 in what will be its first full-factory attack since the C100 Group C car in 1982. 

Its entry into the WEC’s Hypercar class was revealed by Bill Ford, executive chair of the Ford Motor Company, on Thursday evening as part of a motorsport launch event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford referenced marque’s 1960s successes as well as its GTE Pro triumph in 2016 with the Ford GT on the 50th anniversary of its first outright win in the announcement. 

“There is no track or race that means more to our history than Le Mans,” he said.  

“It is where we took on Ferrari and won in the 1960s and it is where we returned 50 years later and shocked the world and beat Ferrari again. 

“I am thrilled that we’re going back to Le Mans and competing at the highest level of endurance racing. 

“We are ready to once again challenge the world, and ‘go like hell! When we race, we race to win.”

The LMDh programme will grow Ford’s representation in the WEC in which it is already racing in LMGT3 with a pair of  Mustang GT3s run by the Proton Competition team.   

It will also expand its presence at the highest level of motorsport. 

Ford’s Hypercar entry will come a year after it returns to Formula 1 in partnership with Red Bull Racing, which means the Blue Oval will be represented in the top class of four FIA world championships from ’27.  

The LMDh and F1 projects join its longstanding engagement in the World Rally Championship with M-Sport and the World Rally-Raid Championship which it joined this year with the British organisation. 

Ford announced no details of its Le Mans attack, except that it will be with an LMDh rather than a Le Mans Hypercar and that it will be a full-factory effort managed by Ford Performance, its high-performance and motorsport division. 

No mention was made of the IMSA SportsCar Championship for which its LMDh will be eligible in the GTP class. 

A spokesman for Ford Performance explained that announcing WEC allowed it to place emphasis on its return to Le Mans as a contender for outright victory.

It can be expected, however, that Ford will join the IMSA GTP grid with its new LMDh. 

Ford has more recent history of competing for outright honours with prototype machinery in North America than in Europe or at world level.

It was a race winner in the IMSA GT Championship with its front-engined Ford Mustang GTP during the first half of the 1980s before replacing the car with the more conventional Probe GTP of 1985-86.

Ford entered the Grand-Am Daytona Prototype ranks in 2014 as an engine supplier with the Roush/Yates-developed EcoBoost twin-turbo V6, winning the Daytona 24 Hours with the powerplant in a Chip Ganassi Racing-run Riley the following year.

IMSA boss John Doonan alluded to Ford joining the ranks of the series in a brief media address ahead last weekend’s Daytona enduro. 

No mention was made of which of the licensed LMDh chassis suppliers it will be working with, the identity of the team with which it will partner or drivers. 

Multimatic Motorsports would be the obvious chassis partner given its long-standing relationship with Ford: it developed both road and race versions of the GT and the current GT3 car is the latest in the long line of racing Mustangs it has designed and built. 

The Canadian-headquarter organisation is Porsche’s chassis partner on the 963 LMDh project and it is unclear if this relationship allows it to work with another brand. 

Ford’s statement on its return to the top flight of sportscar racing stated that more details will be shared later. 

Le Mans organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the WEC welcomed the news from Ford, which means that from 2027 there will be a minimum of 10 manufacturers in Hypercar on the presumption that all the existing participants remain. 

WEC boss Frederic Lequien said: “Ford has been synonymous with success both on and off-track for decades, and we are delighted that the company has chosen the WEC for its latest challenge.”