Ford Chip Ganassi Racing has confirmed its line-up for the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship season.
Ford confirmed last year that it would be returning to the front line of endurance racing in partnership with Chip Ganassi Racing, fielding two Ford GTs in the GTE Pro class.
These cars will be piloted by Andy Priaulx, Olivier Pla, Stefan Mücke and Marino Franchitti, who collectively boast a great deal of racing experience and success.
Priaulx ended a long-running relationship with BMW last year, having claimed three WTCC titles with the German marque. The Briton most recently raced in the BTCC.
Pla and Mücke both arrive at Ford with recent WEC racing experience. Pla endured a difficult time with Nissan’s LMP1 operation in 2015, but has previously raced with G-Drive and Oak Racing in LMP2. Mücke joins Ford from Aston Martin Racing, with whom he entered five rounds of the WEC in 2015.
Franchitti had tested extensively for Ford during its development of the GT, and will make his WEC debut at Silverstone in April.
“We’re going against some legendary opposition, Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin. It’s the things of dreams,” Franchitti said of Ford’s return in January.
“It’s going to be a dogfight, every single lap, every single race – especially at Le Mans in June. Very excited to be a part of that having watched the WEC for the past couple of years, especially the GT class, with Ford coming in and making it four.
“Obviously Porsche and Aston have their last generation cars updated, the Ferrari is all-new as we are, so it’s going to be very interesting to see how it all plays out. I think it’s just going to be wheel to wheel for every single lap of racing.”
