Mies Surprised in Easier-Than-Expected Switch to Mustang GT3

Christopher Mies ‘didn’t struggle as much as he thought’ transitioning to driving the front-engined Ford Mustang GT3 after a decade plus of piloting Audi machinery in GT3 competition.

Mies, along with Frederic Vervisch, joined the Blue Oval’s roster of GT3 factory drivers off the back of a lengthy tenure with Audi. The two drivers will both be making their racing debuts with Ford Performance at next week’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

With the change of manufacturers comes a significant shift in car concept for Mies, going from the mid-engined, V10-powered Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II to the brand new, front-engined V8 Mustang GT3.

Mies jokingly said the sensation of driving the new Multimatic-developed car after so many years with Audi felt “a bit like cheating on your girlfriend,” but noted that he took to the driving characteristics of the new car easier than anticipated.

“To be honest I didn’t struggle as much as I thought I probably will be because basically for the last 15 years I just drove the mid-engine Audi,” Mies told Sportscar365.

“So I was expecting to struggle a lot more but to be honest, but we can all see [from] when the amateurs were driving [that] the Ford is quite well balanced compared to the Audi before, [which] on the limit [is] quite a tough car to drive.

“The gap between the Bronze drivers and the pro drivers could be massive, while the Ford, directly at the first test we had Philipp Sager, one of the team owners of Dinamic GT, driving the car [at Barcelona] and he was faster than than in his Porsche in Barcelona [during] the whole race weekend.

“From this the way it’s built, front engine, rear gearbox, long wheelbase, especially [in] high-speed corners it’s just well balanced and [that] makes it a lot easier to extract the time.”

Even if he took to the nature of the car relatively well, Mies admitted he is still on a learning curve ahead of his racing debut with Ford next week.

“Every car has specific things which are different and we are also still learning. I have driven the car now a lot I would say, but still, every time I go out I learn new things.

“I would say right now I’m at 70 percent of understanding how the car wants to be driven and the last 30 percent is like the last three tenths on the racetrack. It’s very hard to find.

“The first half goes fast and then it gets slower and slower. It’s like charging your phone or electric car, the more percentage you have, the slower it gets.”

Vervisch Signed “Late Agreement” With Ford After Exploring Aston Martin Move

Mies will be sharing the No. 64 Ford with Harry Tincknell and Mike Rockenfeller, while former Audi colleague Vervisch has been teamed up with Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand in the sister car.

Vervisch revealed that he was the last driver to join Ford’s roster of works drivers, having initially attempted to remain with Comtoyou Racing even as the Belgian squad switched manufacturers to align itself with Aston Martin.

“It’s the team I stayed with a very long time and since seven years we drive together,” Vervisch told Sportscar365.

“They went to Aston, so let’s say this would have been the logical choice. That’s why also it was such a late decision with Ford because probably my options were more in that direction.

“It’s a big honor to be involved in such an important project and as a driver this is nice for your ego. It’s a prestigious project and it’s great that they count on you for that.

“As our deal was kind of late, I didn’t do all the European testing. I did nothing of testing so that’s also again a big honour for me, that they signed me without testing so that they really have the confidence in me.”