Ford welcomes Verstappen interest as Hypercar programme gathers pace

In recent weeks, there has been plenty of discussion about Verstappen competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the future - potentially in a Hypercar. The hype began after it was announced that the legendary 24-hour race would not clash with a Formula 1 weekend in 2027. There was one obstacle, however: the mandatory test day clashes with the Monaco Grand Prix. Verstappen later revealed himself that he is setting his sights on the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring and Spa-Francorchamps, while postponing a potential Le Mans appearance for now.

GPblog asked Ford Racing whether those future plans had already been drawn up. “I'm not sure of any conversations,” Sayers said during a roundtable attended by this website. “It would be great, wouldn't it? To have him in the car. But at the moment, it's just too much to think about elsewhere - as I'm focused on racing for next year at the moment." It will be an important year for Ford, as the American marque returns to the top class of endurance racing.

An initial outing in the Hypercar would not necessarily mean that Verstappen would also take part in a race program. Lando Norris recently tested McLaren’s new Hypercar at Portimão, while a potential Le Mans appearance has not yet been confirmed for him either. Asked whether Ford would like to offer Verstappen a similar opportunity, Sayers remains clear: “I think time permitting, it'd be lovely to, but no, that's not the plan at the moment."

Campbell would also like to see Verstappen climb into the Ford. The Australian is one of six confirmed factory drivers for the Hypercar program and is helping develop the new car. He brings experience from both GT racing and prototypes, and has previously won titles in the American IMSA championship. He switched from Porsche’s Hypercar program. He spent six years as a factory driver for the Stuttgart-based marque.

“From my side, obviously, to have someone of his caliber in the car would be very, very cool.” Campbell told GPblog. “He's very experience, very fast is obviously a huge name in our sport, so you never know. You’ve seen what he has done at the Nordschleife by now,” he said, referring to the 24-hour race in May. Campbell and Verstappen have crossed paths at the Nürburgring several times, when the Australian was driving Manthey Racing’s Grello Porsche.

For Sayers, the priority is continuing to develop the car. The test programme began at Paul Ricard with four half-days on the smaller test track, followed by three days of testing on the main circuit. Portimão then provided a tougher challenge: four consecutive days of running with a completely new car. “It was four days consecutively, which is pretty brutal with a new car. So we had quite a few late nights, but again some good weather, some solid running", Sayers explained. “We did advance the braking systems, the hybrid control systems, the calibration of the engine, and everything’s moving forward at quite a rate.”

The challenge is to cover enough mileage while also leaving sufficient time to process the findings. “We’re obviously having to pack these tests in quite quickly because time is of the essence", he says. “It’s quite a compromise to try and pack them in, but also give yourself enough time in between the tests to do due diligence, make the upgrades, analyse the data, test on the simulator and offline simulations for all the software, and then go to the next test.”

The most recent test at Silverstone provided valuable information about the car’s behaviour in changing conditions. “We had torrential rain, we had blue skies. And that really allowed us to again move quite far forward with all of the different tyre compounds", Sayers explains. “Silverstone was only two days. We had three drivers there and we covered close to 1,300 kilometres in two days. So again, very positive test."