Ford Planning First Hypercar Track Test in Early Q3

Ford’s new LMDh car is on target to begin testing at the start of the third quarter of this year according to program manager Dan Sayers, but he says the manufacturer is “pushing like hell” to ensure it does not slip behind schedule.

The American brand announced last year that it would return to the top tier of world sports car racing with an FIA World Endurance Championship entry for 2027, opting for an ORECA chassis for its as yet unnamed Hypercar class challenger.

It revealed Mike Rockenfeller, Seb Priaulx and Logan Sargeant as the program’s first drivers earlier this year and also stated that the Ford prototype would be powered by a 5.4-liter Coyote V8 engine developed in-house.

As preparations intensify, with the engine now being dyno tested, Sayers says the key milestones are being reached according to targets and he expects the car to be first rolled out on track early in Q3.

“I think we’re exactly where we expected to be – it has gone well,” said Sayers when asked by Sportscar365 about current progress.

“We’re starting to build the test car engine fairly soon so all of that is under way. The homologation process has already started, so that’s on schedule. And we expect to be building the car in the next three or four months.

“Then, as soon as that’s done, we will roll it out in the south of France. We will spend a week, I envisage, just on the roll-out debugging and then we will start our first track test the same month.”

Sayers stressed the importance of sticking to the plan with an extensive test program already “booked and confirmed.”

“We’re pushing like hell to make sure we are ready because if we miss one of those tests it has a huge knock-on,” he added.

“So all of that is planned and, at the moment, there’s nothing to suggest we won’t make that, so it’s great news and there’s a huge amount of effort going in everywhere to make sure we do stick to that.”

Sayers explained that the Hypercar test program would initially be concentrated on Europe before then venturing to the U.S. to sample more punishing circuits.

“We will definitely do a 30-hour test in Europe before we then go to America to finish off the testing,” he said.

“The plan is to do another 30-hour test, probably early in the new year, and some of the tracks in America – Sebring, for example – are great for durability so we plan to visit there to do an endurance run as well.

“The difficulty is with a finite amount of time and a sensible mileage we need to get in, we’re trying to stage the tests with a good couple of weeks in between to allow us to do development, analysis, so it’s getting that compromise between enough time to move forward but not too long such that we get very few tests.”

While Sayers insists that progress is on schedule on the car’s development, he did say it may take longer for the rest of the driver lineup to be assembled.

He said it is likely to be “towards the end of this year” before the full roster is confirmed, but added he is “very happy with who we’re speaking to.”

With Rockenfeller the only one of the initial trio with top-class prototype experience, having previously driven a privateer Porsche 963 in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Sayers said discussions are under way with drivers that also have previously competed in either Hypercar and/or GTP racing.

“We’re talking to a lot of drivers at the moment still for the remaining seats, some of which do have LMDh and Hypercar experience,” he said. “We’re going to try to continue to have a balance of experience and youth.”