Ford Chip Ganassi Racing has finally named their 12 Le Mans drivers, who will pilot the 4 cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans + the 2 driver pairings in the remaining 8 rounds of FIA WEC.
Car number 66 will have Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla as the regular drivers, while Billy Johnson, who has been developing the car from its early stage, joining them.
Number 67 will have Marino Franchitti and Andy Priaulx for the whole season, while Harry Tincknell will be the 3rd driver at Le Mans.
The 2 cars from the IMSA series already had their debut in January at Daytona 24 Hours. In the 68 car we will see Joey Hand and Dirk Müller being joined by Sebastien Bourdais. Scott Dixon will join regulars Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe in 69.
Therefore Ford’s Le Mans lineup will consist of drivers that have won numerous races and titles, including the Le Mans race. Just to name a few, we will see Priaulx as a triple WTCC champion, Franchitti as a winner of both Sebring 12 Hours and Daytona 24 Hours, Hand a Daytona 24 Hours winner and GT Champion in ALMS, Dixon a 4 times Indycar Champion, Bourdais a 4 times Champcar Champion and born in Le Mans itself plus Tincknell and Pla who joins from Nissans failed LMP1 programme and have previously won the LMP2 class at Le Mans and the LMP2 title in Le Mans Series respectively.
At the debut at Daytona the car lacked quite a bit of endurance, but for sure Ford has been working intensely since then to get the problems solved during the past 2 months.
But no matter what, we can expect a huge fight when the qualifying starts at Le Mans. This years is 50 years since Ford won Le Mans for the first time out of 4 in a row – therefore they have chosen car numbers 66, 67, 68 and 69. Those races were won while battling hard with Ferrari – and that rivalry will be retained this year. Not only in the qualifying but hopefully throughout the race as well.
