CEO of the FIA WEC, Gerard Neveu, was on hand at Ford’s WEC programme launch yesterday to add further weight to the significance of the effort. So DSC took the opportunity to ask about the way forward for a very different looking GTE Pro class:
“It is fantastic to have Ford back, a huge part of the endurance racing story with Ferrari, with Porsche and with Aston Martin.
“Better still though the car is fantastic and it will make, in the near future for a renewed visibility for the GTE class, we have had it in the past and this car, with the other new cars coming too, will mean we see more of it in the future too.
“GT is an absolutely essential part of the WEC and endurance racing, it adds more racing, more drama and uncertainty and it allows other manufacturers to find a way to join us.
“Better still with Ford we get to talk about the history of endurance over the past 50 years, but also with brand new EcoBoost technology, we get to talk about cars in the future too.”
It’s another step change in GT racing, from big normally aspirated engines, to (in Ford and Ferrari’s cases) to turbocharged engines.
“Yes and perhaps very soon from Porsche too!”
What next, Hybrid?
“No, hybrid technology at this moment is very, very expensive and I’m not sure that this is reasonable immediately in a GTE programme. Probably in a couple of years we might have a better knowledge and it might start to become easier to introduce this technology in a GTE programme.
“Right now we have to keep GTE as part of ‘the dream’, a dream because this looks like a car you could drive on the road but you know that when you see it on the track the performance is amazing and I’m sure that again this year we’ll have amazing racing with the Ford, the Aston Martin, the Ferrari and the Porsche.
“And part of that, again underlined today with the Ford team is the quality of the drivers. You look at the drivers for this team, and then think about the other drivers in the class it is going to be so professional, so amazing. Drivers performing at the highest level but still with an incredible team spirit and paddock atmosphere between the teams.
“It’s great to see Andy Priaulx and Marino Franchitti joining that family.”
There’s a gap this year, we aren’t now going to see Corvette in GTE Pro for the season?
“It is sad, there is a real space for Corvette to join this paddock. I know they produce the vast majority of their cars for the US market so there is a point that why should they be interested in a World Championship.
“But there is a point because Corvette are another brand that has an equal place in the Endurance story taking on the very biggest races and the biggest challenges. To see them one day taking up a place in the full GTE Championship would make sense for the WEC and, I believe, for Corvette.
“I hope they’ll be ready to do it and to make the effort very soon.”
And what level of interest is there from manufacturers not currently in the WEC for near future programmes in GTE?
“There are other manufacturers looking at a range of programmes. I would say though that GTE is the most accessible and there there is more and more interest. There are discreet meetings with WEC and with Pierre Fillon at the ACO right through the year.
“For now though the return of Ford, and the quality of the grid in GTE this year will be another major additional point in favour of the WEC that will help these manufacturers to rejoin the endurance family not just because the racing is good and the sporting side is good but because visibility os good and the technical side helps them to display their technology.”
