Ford has announced their GT programmes in both IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championship have been extended.
The programme was originally only 2016 and 2017, but after their Le Mans triumph, they have chosen to extend the programme.
Photo: JJ Media
Ford has been under extreme critic after their behaviour at Le Mans this year. Not only did they hide their real performance during the first WEC races plus at the Le Mans test day, but then got more weight in the car and lower boost levels for the turbo. That didn’t change much and only Ferrari could follow them in the race. With 1 hour left of the race, the team put a protest on Risi Ferrari in 2nd position due to faulty leader lights on the side of the car. The Ford team was apparently over by Risi before that and threatening them, that if they didn’t pit themselves and gave up the whole podium to Ford (that ended up finishing 1-3-4), they would throw the protest. Risi declined and so Ford went to race control with the protest. Even though race control gave the Ferrari a penalty, the penalty however wasn’t big enough to change the positions.
A lot has criticised Ford for that behaviour, since sportscar racing normally is a friendly paddock known for fair play, and not protesting each other left, right and centre. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so at Le Mans this year.
It will be interesting to follow Ford for the rest of the year, and if the speed advantage well stay the same. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing UK #66 leads the FIA World Endurance Championship for GT Drivers, while they are P3 in the FIA World Endurance Championship for GT Manufacturers.
