Ford Racing’s FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar program will be run by none other than… Ford Racing.
Rather than call upon the services of another racing team to run its ORECA-supplied LMDh prototype from 2027 and beyond, Ford Racing will instead operate its Hypercar team in-house. The team will be led by Program Manager Dan Sayers, utilizing Ford’s facilities in the United States and the United Kingdom.
“Keeping with our core values, our Hypercar program will be operated by Ford Racing. This gives us the ability to react more quickly on track, enhancing our competitiveness,” said Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Racing. “It also allows us to bring technology back to our road cars more effectively and efficiently than ever before.
“Breaking from the traditional model of many manufacturers – and often our own model in the past – Ford Racing will oversee and manage every aspect of our prototype sports car racing project led by program manager, Dan Sayers. We are not looking outside our walls to find who can run a program for us; we are looking within Ford Racing to build our programs infused with our passion.
“We will also build our own internal expertise to create a framework for long-term future success and learnings that will find their way into customer programs of the future.”
Recent Ford Racing factory efforts had been operated by other teams, including Multimatic Motorsports, which runs two Ford Mustang GT3s in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as well as Chip Ganassi Racing, which ran the Ford GTE in both IMSA and WEC from 2016–2019.
To build up the team ahead of its 2027 WEC Hypercar debut, Ford Racing will be filling dozens of roles across the program, seeking top development engineers, technicians, mechanics, and other skilled racing tradespeople to staff the testing and race programs.
Rushbrook continued: “Every role needs to be filled, and that is no small task because we aren’t just filling the positions, we are building a team culture which mirrors that of Ford Racing: Passionate and driven by a need to be the best. We have at our global disposal not only advanced racing facilities in Dearborn, Michigan and Charlotte, North Carolina here in the United States, we have Red Bull Ford Powertrains and our Hypercar facilities in the UK as well.
“We also have our chassis partners at ORECA, who have decades of winning experience, who will also provide ongoing support to Ford Racing, including trackside support. These are assets that no one can match, and we are focused on staying at the forefront in facilities, technology and people.”
In addition to the support that the Ford Racing Hypercar team will receive from chassis partner ORECA, UK-based engineering and motorsport consultancy group Venture Engineering will provide technical and operational support.
“With over 100 Le Mans starts between them, they make the perfect partners to assist Ford Racing in this exciting new endeavour. While we bring these partners in, we are proud that this is very much a Ford Racing effort,” Rushbrook added. “In our ranks, we have the leading minds of motorsports, and we are building… quickly and systematically.
“It is an exciting time as we continue to build and develop our Ford Racing Hypercar program. We are filling dozens of roles in our design and engineering departments and our engine program. We are speaking to top development engineers and technicians to staff our testing and race programs. We are bringing in the leading mechanics and skilled racing tradespeople from around the world. The best marketers and communications people will tell this story from within. And most satisfying of all, we will have the support of our global Ford family everywhere we race.
“Ford Racing rings true to the competitive blood that runs through the entirety of Ford Motor Company. It is a privilege to be racing as America’s Race Team. I invite you to be a part of it. After all, there is no one better to carry the Blue Oval into the highest level of international sports car racing than Ford Racing itself.”