The Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team took to the 8.5-mile Le Mans circuit for the first time on Sunday for the official test day ahead of the great 24-hour race, and according to FCGR's managing director, the outing was a success.
"We were really impressed by how our team was accepted and welcomed by the sanctioning body and scrutineering, and they were very complimentary of the cars and how they were presented," Mike Hull told RACER of the four-car Ford GT program. "It's our first time going there as a group, so we had no idea what to expect. I think we represented the Ford brand very well for our first day.
The fastest Ford GT placed sixth in the GTE-Pro class on Sunday (3:56.039), which wasn't as close to the class-leading Corvette C7.R (3:55.122) as Hull might have wanted, but with the difference in track experience between the brands, the Blue Oval spent the day learning while others added to their considerable knowledge at La Sarthe.
"In talking to our drivers and [FCGR team manager] Mike O'Gara and [race engineer] Brad Goldberg, we knew there was going to be a big learning curve, and that rang true," Hull added. "Our group of people were really patient and deliberate in working through our test plan so that when we return for race week, we can start by not being in a hole. That was the key to yesterday. It was about valuable track time and learning all we could so we can return and do everything right."
With a significant amount of information to gather during the test day, Hull credits the dual testing plan undertaken by FCGR's IMSA and WEC teams prior to Sunday for helping the Ford GTs get within one second of the defending class winners.
"We were lucky because we did a test at Road America before we went to go over items for Le Mans, and our WEC team did the same by going to Monza, and we went to those places with big straightaways to try some things before the Le Mans test and that was a help for us," he said. "When we rolled out at Le Mans, we had already simulated some of what we were going to see, and were better prepared that way in the configuration we thought we might race."
Reducing the gap to the factory programs from Corvette, Porsche, and Ferrari – all teams that ran ahead of the Fords at the test – will involve tweaking the setups that were honed at Road America and Monza and tried at Le Mans.
"Going forward with that configuration, we'll be working hard to develop that configuration to find more speed," Hull confirmed. "That's where we'll focus ourselves when we run those two days next week before we race."
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Originally Posted by Procision-Auto
