We could see Ford vs Ferrari all over again in the top class of endurance racing. According to media reports, the American carmaker is mulling a Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) or Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) entry, after a successful stint in the LM GTE class with the Ford GT.
During an interview with Autocar, Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Performance, said, “[We] are constantly studying or looking at where we can race or should race.” When asked if Ford would consider entering the hypercar class, Rushbrook said, “To be responsible for what we’re chartered to do, we need to be aware of all opportunities.”
Rushbrook went on to state, “Motorsports is very strong, overall, globally, and all different disciplines – they’re all strong. But I think, relatively, sports car racing in these last three years has really come on, and a lot of that is because of global convergence.
“GTE and GT LM converged with GT3 – so now we’ve got one focus for GT racing, which helped us make sense out of having the Mustang GT3 – and the same at prototype [level], which has not truly converged in many ways, because there’s still the LMdH formula, or the LMH formula, but at least there’s the ability to race them together, so that convergence has been great.”
Rushbrook didn’t want to disclose whether Ford would opt for the LMH class, which allows for the cars to be designed and built from the ground up or the LMDh class, which allows manufacturers to use off-the-shelf components.
Source: Autocar