Ford GT Le Mans Livery Spotted

Photo: Joe Willis/Chicagoland Petrolheads and Car Spotters

A second special Ford Chip Ganassi Racing livery for next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans has been spotted, in what appears to be a potential retro-themed design. 

Revealed in a series of photos by a user on the Chicagoland Petrolheads and Car Spotter’s Facebook page, the white and red-liveried No. 69 Ford GT was spotted alongside the No. 68 car, in a more traditional red-white-and-blue design, at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport en route to France.

As confirmed by Sportscar365 earlier this month, the No. 68 Ford of Joey Hand, Dirk Mueller and Sebastien Bourdais will run in its 2016 livery, paying homage to their Le Mans GTE-Pro class victory that year.

The reason behind the livery of the No. 69 Ford, however, remains unclear as it was believed the American manufacturer would showcase its previous Le Mans race-winning designs across its four-car factory lineup.

The No. 69’s front-end motif and central stripe appears to resemble the design of the 1968-winning Gulf-liveried Ford GT40 driven by Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi, albeit with red and white coloring instead of orange and blue.

A commercial partnership with Castrol could be a reason for the omission of the iconic Gulf colors.

Ford has yet to officially confirm whether it will run a full set of retro liveries for its final Le Mans appearance as a factory GTE-Pro team.

It joined Porsche in equipping its two IMSA cars with ‘throwback’ colors at this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John