Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK – Ford GT LMGTE Pro – Andy PRIAULX, Harry TICKNELL, Luis Felipe DERANI 14.06.2017-18.06.2016 Le Mans 24 Hour Race 2017, Le Mans, France – www.xpbimages.com, EMail: [email protected] – copy of publication required for printed pictures. Every used picture is fee-liable. © Copyright: Photo4 / XPB Images
Yesterday we looked at the first half of the GTE field in the history of the FIA World Endurance Championship, held since 2012, with Aston Martin, BMW and Corvette all featured. Today we’ll look at the second half, examining the legacies of Ferrari, Porsche, Ford and Dodge in the GTE class.
Ferrari
Ferrari have been competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s GTE class since 2012, much like Aston Martin, and as we’ll see later, Porsche.
The Italian team, run in the GTE Pro and Am class by Amato Ferrari’s (no relation) AF Corse squad, has competed with two different cars, the Ferrari 458 Italia and the Ferrari 488.
Ferrari’s 458 Italia was a stalwart in the early years of WEC. Image: XPB
The 458 Italia GT2 started racing in 2011, in the WEC’s predecessor championship, the Intercontinental Le Mans Series. When the WEC started in 2012, Ferrari entered two 458s in GTE Pro, driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisischella, and Toni Vilander, with the other car crewed by Andrea Bertolini and Olivier Beretta. They also entered cars into GTE Am, one sponsored by former NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip.
AF Corse won the GTE Pro trophy that year, prevailing over Aston Martin, with the Bruni-Fisichella-Vilander car also winning Le Mans in the Pro class. The AF Corse-Waltrip car of Piergiuseppe Perazzini, Marco Cioci and Matt Griffin also won the Am class at Le Mans, giving AF Corse a clean sweep.
The next year they continued entering two cars in Pro and up to three cars over the season in Am, but were not as successful at Le Mans, winning neither class. They retained the Pro championship though, now renamed the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Pro Teams, with three wins for the #51 Ferrari of Bruni and Fisichella, over the year at Spa, Interlagos, and Bahrain.
The following year was a bit of a shake up for the Pro class, AF Corse-run Ferraris, with Fisichella moving to a Le Mans–only role alongside Vilander and Bruni, while in the other car newcomer Davide Rigon was joined by another newcomer, James Calado, who up until then had been involved in single seaters and Formula 1 with Force India.
Additionally, Ram Racing also entered a Pro 458 for Silverstone and Le Man, plus an Am entry for the same races, and American team 8 Star Motorsports also entered an Am-class car across the season. AF Corse entered as many as four separate cars in GTE Am, with the 61 car having no less than 10 drivers over the season, including a certain Emerson Fittipaldi, who raced the car at the season ending 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.
Bruni, Vilander and Fisichella again won Le Mans — their second win — while AF Corse took the Pro endurance trophy, with the Vilander/Bruni car taking the title for the second straight year.
Going into 2015, Rigon and Calado almost won at Le Mans, thwarted by Corvette. AF Corse also lost out on the Pro Endurance Trophy, to Porsche — but SMP Racing won the Am championship, with two Russians, Viktor Shaytar and Aleksey Basov, plus Bertolini behind the wheel. The trio also won at Le Mans — another double win for Ferrari at the French endurance classic.
The Italian manufacturer introduced the 488 (pictured in 2017) in 2016, taking the title in its first year. Image: XPB
It was all change in 2016, as a new car, the 488 GTE replaced the aging 458 Italia. The driver lineups had also been shuffled around, with Vilander and Fisichella no longer in the #51 car, being replaced by Calado, who had moved over from the #71 car, with the pair being joined by Alessandro Pier Guidi, who had been racing in Am class Ferraris for AF Corse the previous year, for Le Mans.
In the #71 was now British racer Sam Bird, an F1 reserve refugee who had been racing in LMP2 and GTE Am for the past two years. He joined Rigon, with Bertolini completing the trio for Le Mans.
The 458 Italia hadn’t completely disappeared — with GTE Am being a year behind its Pro class counterpart in terms of car regulations, the old stalwart returned for one more year. AF Corse were the only entrants, with a single full season car and an additional car for Le Mans.
While Ford, who had returned to sportscar racing after an absence of many years, top celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first overall win in 1966, won the Pro class, a Le Mans-only entry from Scuderia Corsa won in GTE Am, with an all-American driver lineup of Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, and Jeff Segal.
In WEC, AF Corse missed out on the Pro title that year, but the trio of Rui Agras, Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard took the Am championship, with 8 podiums in nine races.
Bruni left Ferrari to switch to Porsche for 2017, meaning Pier Guidi was given a full season drive alongside Calado in the #51 car. Rigon and Sam Bird stayed in the sister car, joined by Miguel Molina for Le Mans.
Much like 2016, the Am class AF Corse entries — now using the new 488 GTE — were a single car for the full season and an extra for Le Mans. New entrant Clearwater Racing, based in Singapore, also used the same strategy, with their full season drivers consisting of Weng Sun Mok, Keita Sawa, and Matt Griffin.
However, it was the AF Corse Am entry which won Le Mans, with Duncan Cameron, Aaron Scott and Marco Cioci behind the wheel.
In the new-for-2017 GT World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship, Ferrari prevailed over Ford, while the #51 crew of Calado and Pier Guidi took the Endurance Trophy.
Unchanged full season lineups gave AF Corse stability in the ‘super season’ of 2018-2019, while Franchesco Castellacci, Thomas Flohr and Fischella, now in a driver mentor role, crewed the AF Corse Am entry. Clearwater returned for a sophomore year, while Japanese team MR Racing also entered a car.
Porsche took both Le Mans wins in 2018, as well as the GT World Championship and the World Endurance GTE Drivers’ Championship, plus Project 1, running Porsches, took the Am Endurance Trophy, but Ferrari took the spoils in 2019 in France, as Pier Guidi and Calado won.
The 2019-2020 season was similarly unsuccessful for AF Corse and Ferrari, with Aston Martin taking a clean sweep at Le Mans, winning the GTE Manufacturers World Championship, and their drivers with the GTE Drivers World Championship. In the team lineups, Molina had replaced Bird as the full season driver in the #71, while Calado and Pier Guidi continued their partnership in the #51.
Daniel Serra replaced Rigon in 2021, with the Brazilian having raced in the sister car periodically for a couple of years beforehand. Bird, who had been prioritising his Formula E commitments over WEC, was retained only for Le Mans, the same as the previous year.
Clearwater Racing stunned the paddock with its chrome livery in 2017. Image: XPB
Calado and Pier Guidi won at Le Mans again in 2021, with their partner Come Ledogar, also winning the GTE drivers world championship and helping Ferrari to the GTE manufacturers world championship. The #83 AF Corse entry of Nicklas Nielsen, Francois Perrodo and Alessio Rovera also took the Am championship spoils, in a very successful year for the Italian team.
While no Ferraris won at Le Mans in 2022, Pier Guidi and Calado repeated their success last year championship-wise, taking the drivers’ title and the Ferrari the constructors title. In the sister car, Antonio Fuoco had replaced Daniel Serra, who again joined Pier Guidi and Calado for Le Mans, while Rigon rejoined AF Corse to partner Fuoco and Molina.
Calado, Pier Guidi, Molina and Fuoco stayed with Ferrari to join the 499P Hypercar programme in 2023, as GTE Pro ended its participation in the world championship. The team entered three cars in GTE Am for its final year, with one sponsored by the watchmaker Richard Mille with two promising youngsters, Alessio Rovera and Lilou Wadoux — the first female member of Ferrari’s factory driver crew — partnering former rally driver Luis Perez Companc.
The AF Corse cars would take two wins over the year, one for Companc, Wadoux and Rovera at Spa, and another for Castellacci, Rigon and Flohr at Fuji, with the latter car finishing third in the standings at the end of the year, to close out Ferrari’s GTE history. The Italian manufacturer will enter two Ferrari 296 GT3s, again partnering with AF Corse, in the new LMGT3 class in 2024.
Porsche
Much like Ferrari and Aston Martin, Porsche competed in WEC’s GTE class for its entire existence, from 29012 until 2023. The German manufacturer’s factory team was run by Olaf Manthey’s Manthey team, which was later majority acquired by Porsche.
However, in 2012, the factory was represented solely by Proton Competition, with a single car, a 997 GT3-RSR, driven by Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz, partnered by Patrick Pilet at Sebring and Wolf Henzler at Le Mans. Porsche lost the Manufacturers World Cup to Ferrari, who also won the Pro class at Le Mans that year. Proton also entered an Am class car and another private team, JWA, had a private Am class entry as well, with a variety of drivers in the car throughout the year.
Porsche’s aging 997 GT3-RSR was raced by Proton Competition in 2012. Image: XPB
Manthey took over the Pro class Porsche entry in 2013, with a brand new car: the Porsche 911 RSR, based on the 991 road car, with new aerodynamics and suspension, but retaining the engine from the previous model. As the 991 road car wasn’t ready at the time, Porsche had to homologate it using the 911 Carrera.
The best result of the year came at Le Mans, a 1-2, with Lieb, Lietz and 2010 overall winner Romain Dumas leading home Jorg Bergmeister, Pilet, and fellow 2010 overall winner Timo Bernhard. However, Porsche lost the ‘FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers’, finishing third behind Ferrari and Aston Martin.
The IMSA team — no relation to the IMSA organisation in the US — won at Le Mans in the Am class, with Raymond Narac, Jean-Karl Vernay, and Christophe Bourret behind the wheel, but it was the only Porsche win in the class that year.
2014 brought no further success in either the championships or at Le Mans. The #92 Manthey-run Pro car took two wins through the season, at Silverstone and Spa, but it wasn’t enough to warrant championship success. Meanwhile, Proton had no answer in the Am class to stop Aston Martin taking a 1-2 finish in the Am Endurance Trophy.
A new 991-based car was introduced by Porsche in 2013, the 911 RSR. Image: XPB
2015 saw Porsche take its first World Endurance Cup win, prevailing over Ferrari and Aston Martin, although the Le Mans that year went the Italian manufacturer’s way. Meanwhile, Proton were the only team to enter a Porsche in the Am class for the full season, with one sponsored by actor Patrick Dempsey and the other by Khaled Al Qubasi, an Emirati businessman.
The Dempsey-Proton car, with Dempsey, Marco Seefried and Patrick Long at the wheel, won at Fuji but it wasn’t enough to take the title in the Am class.
2016 saw the factory Manthey team withdraw for a year, testing a new 911 RSR based on the 992 model. Dempsey-Proton replaced them with a single 991 RSR with a factory driver lineup of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen, joined by Philipp Eng at Le Mans.
However, an aging car and only one full season entry in the Pro class meant it was a long year for Porsche, taking no podiums at all in Pro, while Ford won at Le Mans. They finished a lowly fourth in the World Endurance Cup, more than 100 points off Ford in third.
There were three Am class entries in GTE Am, where the car age didn’t matter as much. The Al-Qubaisi Proton entry continued, while new entrants Gulf Racing and KCMG entered a car apiece. Championship success wasn’t forthcoming, however, Proton being pipped to the post by the AF Corse-entered Ferrari.
The new car arrived in 2017 and the Manthey team, now fully amalgamated into the Porsche empire, was back in full force. The new RSR had a mid-engine layout thanks to a waiver from the FIA, powered by 4.0 litre flat-six boxer engine and new aerodynamics, including a swan neck rear wing replacing the older style pylon design.
The new 911 RSR, based on the 992 road car, arrived in 2017. Image: XPB
However, as is common with new cars, it didn’t immediately herald success in 2017. The team took zero wins through the year, with the Lietz.Fred Makowiecki car taking podiums at all but two races, although a win just eluding them.
In GTE-Am, Dempsey-Proton took two wins at Nurburgring and in Mexico, but it wasn’t enough to take the teams or drivers titles.
Success at Le Mans came in 2018 for Christensen, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor, plus the Dempsey-Proton Am entry of Julien Andlauer, Matt Campbell and Christian Reid won their class as well — a double for Porsche at Le Mans. Additionally, Porsche won the GT manufacturers world championship for the 2018-2019 ‘Super Season’ and new Am entry Team Project 1 won the Am class teams trophy. A good year for Porsche!
2019 Le Mans — the last round of the super season — wasn’t quite as successful, but Project 1 did take the Am class win with Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsay, and Egidio Perfetti behind the wheel.
A revision of the 911 RSR arrived for the 2019-2020 season, named the 911 RSR-19. It featured a slightly larger engine, a new gearbox to improve shift speeds, and revised aerodynamics. However, as in 2017, success wasn’t forthcoming in the revised car’s debut season, taking no wins at Le Mans and no championship success in either class.
GTE Pro was beginning to die in 2021, with just Ferrari and Porsche as entrants. However, it was Ferrari’s year, taking both class wins at Le Mans and the championship titles, giving Porsche a second straight year devoid of success. The Am class entries were healthy, now using the 911 RSR-19, with two cars from Project 1, two from Dempsey-Proton, and one from GR Racing, formerly Gulf Racing, but no wins were forthcoming for either team, with Ferrari’s various AF Corse entries taking the majority of the spoils.
Proton, with owner Christian Reid, has competed in every WEC season. Image: XPB
2022 was a similar story championship wise, with Ferrari prevailing over Porsche. Porsche did, though, take the Pro class Le Mans win, thanks to Gianmaria Bruni — a former Ferrari driver — Lietz, and Makowiecki. This, along with Christensen and Estre’s win at Sebring, were the only wins Porsche would take in GTE Pro that year. In GTE Am, Dempsey-Proton won two races, at Spa and Monza, while Project 1 took the final win of the year at Bahrain.
With GTE Pro gone in 2023, Porsche’s Pro drivers, including Estre, Vanthoor, Makowiecki, and Christensen, switched to Hypercar with the new 963 prototype. GTE Am was left with four Porsche entries, two from Proton — one still named Dempsey-Proton, one from GR Racing, and another from Project 1. However, with the factory Corvette entry dominating the year, a single win was all that could be achieved for Dempsey-Proton, at Monza.
For 2024, with Porsche having opted for Manthey to run its two LMGT3 entries in the 911 GT3.R, Proton have chosen to switch to Ford for the new class. GR Racing and Team Project 1, meanwhile, may have no entries at all for the full season, as a consequence of the ACO’s 2 cars per manufacturer rule.
Ford
Ford’s new GT won at Le Mans in 2016, but was controversial from the start. Image: XPB
Ford’s GTE entry came about as a result of the American manufacturer wanting to celebrate its 1966 overall win, and the 50th anniversary, in 2016. Therefore, it announced in 2015 it would return to Le Mans with an all-new car, based on a second-generation Ford GT.
The cars were to be run by Chip Ganassi Racing, although in actual fact, Multimatic, who assisted in the development of the car, ran the WEC operation while Chip Ganassi focused on the US IMSA side. It featured a 3.5 litre twin-turbocharged V6, with looks that harked back to the original 60s GT40.
However, there were significant complaints from Ford’s competition in GTE, as the roadcar was not on sale by the time the car entered to race. At Le Mans, Ford won, with the #68 car of Joey Hand, Dirk Muller and Sebastien Bourdais taking the victory, with the sister car third. Ford entered four cars at Le MNans that year — the two WEC cars joined by the two IMSA cars — but it was both US-based cars on the podium.
Ben Keating’s Wynn’s-liveried Ford won in 2019 but was later disqualified. Image: XPB
Ford attempted to get one of the WEC entries, which finished fourth in class, on the podium by protesting the second-placed Ferrari of Risi Competizione, for having non-functioning leader lights. However, they didn’t take the resulting penalty during the race and while the trophies were taken off the American Ferrari team after the race, they were later reinstated to second.
Ford’s programme was only three seasons long and did not get extended, meaning the cars only raced in 2016, 2017, and the 2018-2019 super season. Championship success was not forthcoming in either season, and there were no further Le Mans wins after 2016.
There was a single Am class entry over that timespan, with Ben Keating’s Keating Motorsports team running a private Ford GT in the 2019 Le Mans. It took the flag in first, a very popular win, but was later found to infringe on the technical regulations and was disqualified.
Dodge/SRT
SRT and Riley raced two Vipers at Le Mans in 2013. Image: XPB
The Dodge Viper has a long and storied history in sportscar racing, from the mid 90s all the way up into the mid 2010s. The full history has been well documented elsewhere — but as this is specifically a history and tribute to GTE, we’ll look at its history in that class, in the WEC.
The car, initially designed by Dodge and then modified for GTE by SRT Motorsports, a division of the company known at the time as Chrysler, and Riley, well known chassis manufacturer in motorsport circles, was known as the Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R. As SRT were involved in what was supposed to be a multi-year programme, this made it a ‘factory’ project, although support from the factory was never fully realised.
It looked similar to the original Viper and retained the V10 engine, although pared down as a result of regulations to a paltry 8.0 litres — the largest ever engine in the GTE class.
Keating’s private Dodge Viper was a popular addition to the Le Mans grid in 2015. Image: XPB
It debuted in WEC at the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans, with two entries in the GTE Pro class, entered by ‘SRT’, although SRT had dropped the project and left Riley to run the cars. One finished 24th overall and 8th in class, driven by Marc Goossens, Dominik Farnbacher and Ryan Dalziel, while the other finished 31st, 10th in class, with Tommy Kendall, Jonathan Bomarito and Kuno Wittmer behind the wheel at various points during the race.
For 2014, the cars were withdrawn by SRT, preferring to focus its activities on racing stateside.
SRT withdrew its support entirely for 2015, leaving Riley to enter a single car for the 2015 race. Driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating, and Marc Miller, the car’s gearbox unfortunately gave up 304 laps into its race, necessitating a retirement.
And that was the last seen of the storied Viper at Le Mans — never fully getting the factory support it deserved in the WEC years.
Keyword: A farewell to GTE, part two: Ferrari, Ford, Porsche and Dodge