Ford gets their wings clipped because last year they sandbagged

Ford sandbagged until race day in 2016 so this year they have had their wings clipped by ACO

Ford Performance Global Director Dave Pericak admitted he’s "concerned" about the current GTE-Pro Balance of Performance for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, after all four Ford GTs did not set representative times in Sunday’s Le Mans Test Day.

The Multimatic-built cars, which were handed a 20kg minimum weight increase as well as a reduction in turbo boost since last year’s race, struggled in the single-day test, with its quickest lap, a 3:57.536 in the hands of Richard Westbrook, more than six seconds slower than Dirk Mueller’s pole time from twelve months ago.

It came despite claims from competitors that Ford was not showing its full potential last weekend, an allegation the manufacturer has denied.

"It seems that every time we talk Le Mans, the story is always around BoP and how that’s all going to shake out and where we’re going to be," Pericak told Sportscar365.

"Overall I’m concerned about the BoP, looking at last year’s race, and how it played out and how competitive it was."

With the Fords ending the test day at the bottom of the time charts, Pericak said he is worried about a potential performance advantage for the Ferrari 488 GTEs, which have not been given any BoP changes since last year’s race.

The Italian manufacturer’s three entries were seventh, eighth and ninth quickest, respectively in the test, although some two seconds quicker than the EcoBoost-powered Fords.

It’s understood the Ferrari is again serving as the performance baseline in the class, and the reason why no BoP changes were made to the Prancing Horse prior to the test day.

"When you look at the Ferrari being the baseline, I think a lot of people are forgetting that the factory Ferraris fell out [of the race last year]," Pericak said.

"But if you look at where they were early in the race, they were pretty quick. We’ve been pulled back a bit.

"If you look at all of that, it’s a bit puzzling to me at the moment as to where the BoP has been set.

"No-one likes the job of BoP, but I am concerned about it for sure." More at Sportscar365