Why satisfaction of Ford Mustang's debut Le Mans podium matched 2016 GTE Pro win

An LMGT3 class podium on the new Mustang GT3's Le Mans 24 Hours bow was an "equivalent" achievement to the Ford GT's debut win in 2016, its car builder says.  

The boss of Ford's technical partner Multimatic that developed and built the cars, Larry Holt, made the comments after its Proton Competition-run machines finished third and fourth at the culmination of the World Endurance Championship blue ribband with a trouble-free run.

The last new Ford to debut at Le Mans, which was also developed by Multimatic, the GT triumphed over Ferrari 50 years on from the Blue Oval's maiden overall victory in 2016 when Dirk Muller, Sebastien Bourdais and Joey Hand's Chip Ganassi Racing-run car claimed class spoils in GTE Pro. 

But where the Ford GT had already claimed its first victory in the IMSA SportsCar Championship prior to Le Mans, the Mustang had yet to reach similar heights either in IMSA or the WEC as it played catch-up in optimising the FIA's mandatory torque sensors.

"If we'd won, I would say bigger than 2016," Holt told Autosport. 

"I can't, because the podium is not a win. So I'd say equivalent, because it's really cool to come here and do that."

Holt said he was "euphoric" that the Mustang's pre-event promise, with Ben Barker topping Wednesday's qualifying session, had been followed up with perfect reliability on two of its three cars.

The #77 entry that Barker shared with Zacharie Robichon and Ryan Hardwick was delayed by a steering rack failure, but the fellow full-season WEC #88 crew of Dennis Olsen, Mikkel Pedersen and Giorgio Roda finished third ahead of the invitational #44 machine driven by Christopher Mies, Ben Tuck and John Hartshorne.

Podium LM GT3: third place #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3: Giorgio Roda, Mikkel Pedersen, Dennis Olsen

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz

The result wasn't entirely contingent on reliability either, as the Mustang produced its best showing of the year to date after making progress on its understanding of the torque sensors, while its centre of gravity disadvantage relative to other GT3 cars was masked by the track's characteristics.

"It was a lot of work to do, to develop the car, it took a year-and-a-half, and like it is with every new racecar, it's a bit of a slog to get it to a point where you can rely on it that it's gonna be reliable," added Holt, whose collaboration with Christian Ried's Proton team dates back to its days of supporting a Porsche 911 RSR-19 in the GTE Am class at Le Mans in 2021. 

"Out of the box, it's been pretty reliable, and then you can race with it. 

"We've done okay in some places, not in others. But it came here and just seemed like it was in a happy place on this track. 

"Somebody just asked me, 'Were you trepidatious about at the end with the two cars like that?' They were running like [they were] at the beginning of the race. 

"It wasn't so much as a light off, or a wire hanging off, or nothing."

After losing over three hours in the pits to its steering rack repairs, the #77 Ford finished 54 laps down in 17th position as the last classified finisher. Barker had run second in the opening two stints to the pole-sitting #70 Inception Racing McLaren, which later lost time to a crash that damaged its radiators, and believed "everything was going smoothly" until the problem struck.

"It's part of the development of a new of a new car," Barker told Autosport. 

"Sometimes you've got to be the guinea pig and unfortunately, we were.

"The car was fast, it was quick, so there's a lot of potential. 

"I'm super happy and proud that there's a Ford badge on the podium, but just gutted it's not us."