FORD

Ford enters FIA WEC championship

Ford has released photos of the supercar it is preparing for the FIA ​​WEC (World Endurance Championship), or World Prototype Championship. Its main feature, which distinguishes it from the competition, is expected to be a powertrain configuration unusual for a sports prototype. The car is currently being tested at the Paul Ricard circuit in France, and its racing debut is scheduled for March next year.

Ford will join the top echelon of WEC with a car developed on an Oreca chassis. However, while many of its rivals use 6-cylinder turbocharged engines, Ford has opted for a naturally aspirated V8. The engine displacement is 5.4 liters, with the unit itself based on the production Ford Coyote block, which is used, among other things, in the Ford Mustang. The total power of the hybrid system is limited by racing regulations to 670 “horses”.

The first race of the next season, the debut of the new Ford, is scheduled for March 21 and 22 at the track in Qatar. The crowning glory of the season will be the 24 Hours of Le Mans, scheduled for June 12th and 13th, a race that Ford marked in the second half of the 1960s, recording four consecutive victories between 1966 and 1969.

The timeline has moved quickly. Ford fired up the car's naturally aspirated V8 for the first time on 4 July, and running-in checks began on 5 August. Twelve days later, the prototype turned its first proper laps at Paul Ricard — a circuit picked largely because it sits a short drive from ORECA's factory, which built the chassis. Ford Racing says the team has “methodically followed a comprehensive programme to activate and verify every control system”, and that all of them are now fully operational. Blomqvist and Rockenfeller are due to take over later in the test week, with Nick Yelloly and Sebastian Priaulx also part of the wider driver roster.

“This was the culmination of months of painstaking work,” acknowledged Ford Racing’s FIA WEC Hypercar Programme Manager, Sayers. “It was one of our most significant milestones to-date, and as I reflect upon the journey to this point, I’m proud of the groundwork that was laid long before the engine ever turned over. 

“Its development is already showing great promise on the dynos in Dearborn, where we’ve been pushing the limits of performance and durability and learning a lot at the same time. That dyno work, combined with parallel progress on the chassis side with ORECA, has now converged into a complete package ready for the next phase.

“The firing of the engine is more than a symbolic moment – it’s a critical validation step. We are doing everything from an engine perspective in-house and we’re doing that because we can react faster, learn faster and bring that back to the production side of the business. [The engine] serves as a direct link to Ford’s production performance vehicles as well as accelerating the transfer of technology between the racetrack and the road.

“Hearing the Coyote V8 come alive within its intended home for the first time confirmed that months of integration work between the powertrain and chassis teams have paid off. Looking ahead, we have a lot of laps to turn later this year, but the work has already started and I’m excited for what’s ahead.”

A V8 that refuses to downsize...The engine is the most distinctive part of the story. While most of the current Hypercar grid has gone turbocharged, Ford is racing a 5.4-litre naturally aspirated V8 derived from the unit already used in the Mustang Dark Horse R, GT4 and GT3 programmes. It still runs the hybrid system every LMDh car must carry under the class's shared technical rules, but the base engine is pure Ford, developed at the brand's Dearborn facility rather than bought in. It is a deliberate choice, not a compromise — Ford is betting that a proven, characterful V8 will do more for the brand than a smaller, quieter unit built purely around a lap time.

Visually, the car is still wearing the blue-and-white camouflage it has worn since its unveiling, with “Ford Racing” lettering across the bodywork. The nose sits low, in a style not unlike Ferrari's 499P, with a raised front splitter and aerodynamic flicks along the sides. Unlike other ORECA-built cars on the grid, this one is running without the small front fin usually fitted to the marque's chassis — a detail that suggests Ford and ORECA are exploring their own aerodynamic path rather than simply copying the customer template. Nothing about the final specification is confirmed, and Ford has not released a power figure, weight, or the car's eventual name.

Indeed, next up for Ford’s Hypercar programme will be a comprehensive track testing schedule at various circuits throughout Europe – and later the United States – which is due to begin next month. The focus will be placed on performance, reliability, aerodynamics and hybrid system integration in conditions aimed at simulating the myriad demands of an FIA WEC race weekend. 

Sayers expects the input from all six confirmed drivers – Logan Sargeant, Mike Rockenfeller, Sebastian Priaulx, Matt Campbell, Tom Blomqvist and Nick Yelloly – to play a vital role in the project’s transition from the virtual world to the real world, as the ‘Blue Oval’ bids to hit the ground running come the curtain-raising contest next spring. 

“Of course it’s early days, and we have a huge amount of work ahead of us, but the sim work and dyno numbers give us a great foundation,” the Brit reported. “Still, there’s no substitute for what the drivers feel through the wheel and seat once we’re actually out on-track – that feedback loop is what will truly sharpen this car over the upcoming months. 

“With the engine now firing within the chassis and a circuit debut just weeks away, our Hypercar programme is entering its most visible and consequential phase yet – one that brings Ford Racing another step closer to its ultimate ambition.”

Ford is stepping into arguably the toughest era the top class of endurance racing has ever seen. Porsche, Ferrari, Toyota, Cadillac, BMW, Peugeot, Aston Martin and McLaren already build or race Hypercars, and Genesis is circling the category too. Starting later than a rival such as McLaren is not being treated as a problem internally — Ford's programme management has said publicly that it is not concerned about the timeline, and 2027 remains the target for a full FIA WEC campaign built around a real assault on the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Autonext take...Ford choosing a naturally aspirated V8 for a 2027 Hypercar is not a nostalgia play. It is a brand decision. Every rival on this grid has already accepted some form of turbocharging or hybrid-heavy downsizing to chase efficiency numbers; Ford is betting that sound, character and a direct line back to its road-going Mustang programme matter just as much to the people who will actually watch this car race.

That said, running without a front fin while everyone else on the ORECA customer platform keeps theirs is the kind of detail that either ages very well or gets quietly reversed within a season. We would not read too much into it yet. What matters more right now is that the programme is hitting its own dates — engine fired in July, running-in in August, laps on track before the month is out. For a manufacturer that has not fought for outright Le Mans victory since the GT40 era, simply being on schedule is itself the story.

Ford's Hypercar programme continues to build on the momentum from its July V8 first-start, as the WEC's current era keeps delivering — Toyota's latest 24 Hours of Le Mans win among the proof that the Hypercar class has never had this much depth.

 

Autonews