Ford considers entering Le Mans hypercar race to compete with Ferrari and

If the brand enters the supercar arena, it may partner with a professional motorsports company

Not content with its recent return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Ford Mustang GT3, the French automaker is considering entering the top endurance race with a hybrid supercar, according to a new report.

Under Jim Farley’s leadership, Ford has rekindled its interest in motorsports in recent years, competing in series such as the World Endurance Championship (WEC) GT3 class, WRC, NASCAR, the Dakar Rally and the Australian Supercars series. The company has also built several crazy race cars, including the insane F-150 Lightning super truck.

READ: Aston Martin Valkyrie Le Mans hypercar revealed in testing

One series it does not compete in, but has seen a surge in popularity, is the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) series or the Le Mans Daytona h (LMDh) series, which allows it to compete against brands such as Ferrari, Cadillac, Porsche, BMW, Alpine, Lamborghini, Toyota and Peugeot.

Someone recently asked car If Ford has any interest in the hybrid supercar space, then Ford Performance director of racing Mark Rushbrook acknowledges the strength of sports car racing, and the recent convergence of rules sets makes the idea more compelling.

“Motorsport in general is very strong, globally, in all the different disciplines. But I think sportscar racing has really progressed in the last three years, relatively speaking, and a lot of that is because of global convergence,” he said. “GTE and GT LM have merged with GT3 – so now we have a focus on GT racing, which has helped us understand what the Mustang GT3 is all about – and the same thing with the prototype (class), which in many ways hasn’t really merged because there’s still the LMdH formula or the LMH formula, but at least there’s the ability to race them together, so that convergence is fantastic.”

Rushbrook added that Ford is considering LMH and LMDh, but did not say whether the brand has a preference.

Interestingly, Rushbrook revealed that Red Bull team boss Christian Horner had approached Ford about collaborating on the RB17 supercar, but Ford felt its “ambitions” in that area were already met with the GT MkIV. So if Ford does enter supercar racing, it won’t be in partnership with Red Bull, but likely with another professional motorsport company.