- Ford Performance will enter the LMDh class of the World Endurance Championship in 2027.
- The goal is overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans against fierce rivals like Ferrari and Porsche.
- Ford’s last entry in the top-tier class took place in 1982, and its last overall win back in 1969.
Ford has announced its return to the highest class in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) – and the 24 Hours of Le Mans – in the 2027 season. The Blue Oval is working on an LMDh hypercar, aiming for its first overall victory at Le Mans since 1969.
Ford Performance will lead a “full factory team entering FIA WEC with the aim of once more taking on the sport’s most demanding race – the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”
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The fierce competition will include the LMDh (Le Mans Daytona Hypercar) entries of Alpine, BMW, Cadillac, Genesis and Porsche, plus the LMH (Le Mans Hypercar) entries of Aston Martin, Ferrari, Peugeot, and Toyota.
The company didn’t get into details about the LDMh racecar which is already under development. However, the current hypercar regulations mandate the use of a hybrid RWD powertrain, with a combined output capped at 671 hp (500 kW / 680 PS) and a minimum weight of 1,030 kg (2,271 pounds).
Bill Ford, Ford Motor Company Executive Chair, said: “We are entering a new era for performance and racing at Ford. You can see it from what we’re doing on-road and off-road. When we race, we race to win. And there is no track or race that means more to our history than Le Mans. It is where we took on Ferrari and won in the 1960s. 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!’”
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Ford is currently running the Mustang in the GT3 category, followed by its participation in the GTE Pro Class with the racing version of the GT supercar between 2016 and 2019. The latter took a class victory at Le Mans in 2016, marking 50 years since the original Ford GT40 took a 1-2-3 victory against Ferrari. This would be the start of a four-year dominance at Le Mans that lasted between 1966 and 1969. The Blue Oval’s last entry in the highest class of Le Mans was back in 1982, when a Cosworth-powered Ford C100 finished second behind a Porsche 956.
Ferrari took the overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans after decades of absence in 2023, which coincided with the 100th anniversary of the legendary endurance race, ending a five-year streak from Toyota, and repeated the same fate in 2024. It will be interesting to see how the new Ford vs Ferrari saga unfolds in two years time. In this context, Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) which organizes the race, said: “The renewal of its famous rivalry with Ferrari is truly an exciting prospect”, adding that “Ford does not compete to finish second”.
We’re going back to Le Mans with a mission to win overall. Welcome the Ford Performance Hypercar program.@FIAWEC @24hoursoflemans pic.twitter.com/NzqfsqaXQz
— Ford Performance (@FordPerformance) January 31, 2025
