Ford’s return to Le Mans hinges on the brand’s Formula 1 partnership with Red Bull

• Ford announced today that it will use a 5.4-liter Coyote V-8 in its upcoming WEC Hypercar endurance race car.
• Before the car hits the pavement, Ford is using information from the new, improved F1 powertrain to improve its Hypercar program.
• That development includes embedding a team of Ford engineers at Red Bull’s F1 factory and manufacturing 12 unique parts for the F1 powertrain.

Like the 60^e The anniversary of Ford’s incredible victory over Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans race is approaching and the Detroit automaker is preparing to challenge for the top step again. In the six and a half decades since that fateful first victory, the world of endurance racing has undergone tremendous changes. Although it won in the LM GTE Pro category in 2016, Ford will have to move mountains if it wants to take overall victory in France again.

So that’s exactly what the company plans to do. A year after announcing its intention to establish a Hypercar program in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), Ford confirmed to the assembled media that its WEC program and its move to Formula 1 are inextricably linked. Everything the company learns from developing Red Bull’s F1 powertrain will be used to get the Hypercar program off the ground, and vice versa, Ford said. Car and driver.

The company emphasized that while it is not the same engineers working on F1, Hypercar and several other racing programs, they are all working towards the same goal as part of the same team: Ford Racing. To this end, the company has embedded a team of engineers at Red Bull’s offices in Milton Keynes, England, who are helping to develop Red Bull’s F1 powertrain. One of those engineers is responsible for the simulations and works with a model that makes a simulated drivetrain run 1000 times faster than normal.

While Ford engineers work directly with the Red Bull team to develop the powertrain, the automaker is specifically responsible for manufacturing twelve unique components between the combustion engine, turbocharger and engine recovery system.

Ford’s official return to the top class at Le Mans won’t happen until the 2027 season, although the automaker will return this year with an Oreca LMP2 car driven by Sebastian Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller. When the Hypercar finally hits the market, Ford says it will be powered by a Coyote 5.4-liter V-8, similar to the engine in the brand’s Mustang GT3 race car. This means that the company not only has data for the upcoming F1 season, but also a full WEC year in preparation for the return to France.

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Jack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his still unshakable addiction to Formula 1.
After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealer group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford, and decided to pursue a career in automotive writing. By chasing down his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel across Wisconsin in search of stories about the automotive world before landing his dream job at Car and driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf.