Ford Racing will begin testing with two examples of its new Hypercar from its next test at Monza later this month as development work intensifies ahead of the car’s 2027 FIA World Endurance Championship debut.
The American manufacturer has so far conducted three tests — beginning at Paul Ricard in early August, and followed by visits to Portimao and Silverstone — with its yet-to-be-named LMDh challenger, all with one car on track, but will now have two available for the Monza test on Oct. 27-30.
Ford’s WEC Hypercar program manager Dan Sayers described a second car coming on stream as a “great” development and would lead to “double the learning,” but will also make the tests a “lot more difficult” operationally and logistically.
“The focus is switching a small amount now the systems are operational, let’s say, we’re into the stage where they need to be developed around the drivers and the chassis,” Sayers added about the test program moving forward.
“So the beauty of having two cars now at the tests is that we can focus one on control systems and one can do pure mechanical setup work so we can learn twice as much, twice as quickly.”
Following Monza and a subsequent trip to Imola, Ford is then planning its first endurance test at Motorland Aragon in November.
“All of the learnings from that, which I’m sure there will be some, will then be put in place for the later endurance test at Sebring, which is in the new year,” said Sayers.
Ford has initially concentrated its testing in Europe, starting off at Paul Ricard — located on the doorstep of ORECA, which provided the chassis spine of the car.
But the Blue Oval will also test at Circuit of The Americas as well as Sebring with Sayers describing the latter as a key proving ground.
“COTA is obviously a WEC track anyway so we wanted to go there,” he added.
“The primary reason for going out to the States is Sebring. As we all know, it’s a decent car-breaker so we want to go there and test it for durability.
“That’s relatively late in the test program for obvious reasons but to go there in the new year in an endurance test is the best sign off for it.”
While that will provide a true test of the car’s capabilities, Sayers has been encouraged by the initial mileage achieved, which included over 1,000 kms at Paul Ricard and 1,300 kms at Silverstone, and says a lot is being learned about the all-new 5.4-liter Coyote V8 engine.
“At the moment, things are going well in terms of reliability — we’re obviously learning things the whole time,” he said.
“It’s normally more the smaller things that catch you out in these longer races, so it’s the smaller details whether it be rubbing looms or whatever it might be that we need to get on top of, log and then fix.
“In terms of the gearbox and chassis, a lot of that is proven already and then it’s down to the powertrain for ourselves.
“We’re learning a huge amount from the powertrain and there’s development coming on all of the time.
“There will be various different specifications throughout testing with a view of us getting to the final spec, or very close to the final spec, at Motorland.”
Sayers also confirmed it will be after that Aragon endurance test that the final driver pairings will be determined.
All six Ford Hypercar drivers have already been announced with the initial trio of Mike Rockenfeller, Seb Priaulx and Logan Sargeant subsequently being joined by Matt Campbell, Nick Yelloly and Tom Blomqvist — with all of them having already sampled the car.
When asked about the exact pairings, Sayers replied: “No we’ve not decided who’s in which car at the moment. That will come towards the end of the year when we’ve done the first endurance test and we’ve seen how they operate together.
“Even down to the ergonomics in the car, there’s several factors that go into it, so it’s something we’re not rushing. We don’t feel the need to decide that straight away.”
The name of the LMDh-based machine is, however, set to be revealed in the next few weeks.
