Ford factory GT driver Andy Priaulx believes the team will struggle to retain its GTE-Pro crown at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend.
Priaulx, who finished ninth last year with gearbox problems, will share the World Endurance Championship-leading #67 Ford GT with Harry Tincknell and Pipo Derani.
However, he doesn't expect it to be as competitive as it was during the Silverstone and Spa six-hour contestes, where the trio finished first and fourth respectively.
The source of discontent is the pre-event Balance of Performance, which is designed to level the different types of GTE machinery.
Following Ford's rampant win in 2016, the quartet of Chip Ganassi-run cars have been dealt a 15 kg weight increase from the 6 Hours of Spa, putting them 20 kg up on last year's 24-hours.
"We’ve got a lot more weight and a lot less power, so we’re just working through our programme with the performance we have," Priaulx told Motorsport Week.com.
"I don’t think we’re the leaders of the pack this year with a tough BoP. We’re in 'hanging-on' mode, rather than the ‘driving from the front’ mode we were in last year. I think it’s going to be really tough."
Priaulx, Tincknell and Derani currently lead the GTE-Pro category with 38 points, two points ahead of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon in their Ferrari.
However, the onset of the BoP regulations – which have not impacted the Ferraris as severely – will enhance the value of the Le Mans double-points round in the scheme of the world championship.
When approached about whether he feels extra pressure having to defend a championship lead with unfavourable BoP, Priaulx said:
"I do, yeah. For us leading the world championship, the goal here is to get a result that means we come away from here with as many points as possible. That’s where our focus lies at the moment, even more than the race."
"It's like a boxing fight with the level of pressure and intense build-up."
"We’ve done lots of testing, including some low-downforce and tyre work at Spa. Then we’ve been building everything up for this race because it’s a big one for us with four Fords."
"It’s always one of the biggest races in terms of pressure and we do really ramp up our preparations compared with the other WEC rounds. I'll need to go on holiday after!"
Regarding lap times, Priaulx doesn't foresee the Fords matching their pole-winning pace of 2016, when Dirk Müller paced the field with a time of 3m 51.185s.
"It all depends on the heat of the track during the night sessions, and what the wind conditions are," said the three-time World Touring Car champion.
"There are many outside variables to consider. But with the changes we’ve had, I think we’ll be a couple of seconds off the pace set last year when we weren’t carrying the extra weight."
"We don’t know what anyone else has got. We may all think we know what we have, but in reality, nobody does."
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