LM24: Bill Ford – "Our company was born on the racetrack"

"Our company was born on a racetrack," related Ford in explaining the rationale behind the program. "I remember watching the (24 Hours) race in 1966 as a 9-year-old and it was the most thrilling thing I'd ever seen.

"We thought about Le Mans in 2003 with the last Ford GT but that was a short program that was really a modernization of the GT40 and with such a compressed program, we really didn't ever get to a serious look at a racing program."

Ford stressed that the Le Mans program was part of the global marketing effort for the company's new supercar.

"People have asked me today, 'What are your expectations?' History tells us that it takes two or three years and I understand that. But this isn't a learning experience, Chip intends to come here with a fully competitive car – We're coming here to race."

"Yes! If you can't have fun racing, you're not alive!" Ford exclaimed. "Back in the day my uncle and (Ferrari boss) Gianni Agnelli had a lot of fun with the back and forth and those friendly relationships continue to this day. It not only should be fun, it has to be fun.

"We are very excited in seeing the tech make its way into some of the road vehicles but, as a program this is almost nothing but fun."

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Michelin's Pascal Couasnon emphasized his company's appreciation of the opportunity it has to be affiliated with Ford's GT race program.

"It's another very big program and I hope it's a mark that people respect the work that we have done," said Couasnon. "When you have a series where you have to fight against other tire makers and keep major brands happy, you have to be at your best all of the time. That's what we love. Ford came to us and I was very quick to say yes."

Chip Ganassi also lauded the opportunity to get involved.

"When you put all of these things together: Ford, the new GT, a 50th anniversary and EcoBoost technology, any race team would jump at that opportunity," he said. "We certainly did!

"People have always said: 'Chip, you've won this race, that race, Indy etc., etc. – How about going to Le Mans.' Honestly I've been waiting for the right program to come along and this is certainly the right program at the right time.

"We probably started talking about this two and a half years ago – it was certainly this program that got us to shift over to Ford."

Ganassi noted that the project marks a return for himself personally, having raced at Le Mans back in 1987 with the Kouros Sauber team.

"It's kind of coming in a full circle – from being a car driver to a car owner," he said. "This was the last place I drove as a pro driver and to come back so many years later – to say I'm excited about it is a huge understatement!"

George Howard-Chappell, a Le Mans winner with Ferrari and Aston Martin teams, is returning with a third iconic GT racing brand as the program manager for Multimatic, which will build the Ford GT racecars.

"It's fantastic. There's been some very hard work to get here but it's fantastic," Howard-Chappell said. "I've won teams that have won with Ferrari and Aston Martin and it's great to race against those guys now as well as renewing my – and Ford's – rivalry with Corvette. I'm really looking forward to it.

Howard-Chappell explained how the multifaceted program will work:

"I'm the program manager of the race side of Ford GT on the Multimatic side. Effectively, Multimatic will be the operational side of Chip Ganassi Racing for the WEC. We don't have to go racing as a team until next April (although the CGR team will debut the car at Daytona in January -Ed.).

"We have a few key people in place. Multimatic is a bit of a stealth company. People don't really understand what goes on but the depth and breadth of experience within the company means we can easily cover the testing and as we go forward we'll be building up a full staff to run two cars. Julian Sole is a Multimatic employee. He's been a key part of the design side for the racecar.

Howard-Chappell emphasized that the car revealed at the launch was the real thing rather than a mock-up.

"This is a running car! It won't run this weekend – it could, but it won't," he said. "The film you've just seen of the car was not made up!"

No date was given for when the testing program for the cars would begin in earnest, and Howard-Chappell insisted there was no rush on that front.

"The obvious answer is, 'When we're ready,'" he said when asked about testing. "We need to have a car that is durable and on the button by the time we get to Daytona, so it's been building up. It's been difficult to date, of course, because we've had to keep everything massively under wraps.

"Testing will principally be in North America in the coming months and in due course it will swap to Europe."

Howard-Chappell has been taking part in the WEC Manufacturer's Working Group discussing forthcoming new GTE regulations. He said all involved have been making good progress toward finding solutions that will work for everyone.

"In all the time I've worked in GT racing on regs evolution, I have never seen the manufacturers so united in trying to get to a very good fixed rule set," he noted. "Everyone's worked very well together and sometimes not with a selfish interest but with a solid view for the good of the sport. That's been great to see and I hope we can get them nailed down soon."

Interviews conducted by Marshall Pruett & Graham Goodwin