Ford has bolstered its preparations for its upcoming Hypercar programme within the World Endurance Championship by signing Le Mans 24 Hours-winning engineer Leena Gade.
The Briton will instantly start work on Ford Racing’s new Oreca-based LMDh prototype, which is able to debut within the Hypercar class of the WEC in 2027.
The Blue Oval mentioned her “deep understanding of the Circuit de la Sarthe and long-distance technique makes her a cornerstone of Ford’s aggressive ambitions.”
Born within the UK to immigrant Indian dad and mom, Gade is greatest recognized for her function as a race engineer in Audi’s now-defunct LMP1 programme. Throughout her uber profitable stint within the WEC, Audi claimed outright wins at Le Mans in 2011, 2012 and 2014, together with a number of LMP1 world titles.
After Audi withdrew from the championship on the finish of 2016, Gade moved to the USA and labored throughout completely different championships. In 2018, she joined Schmidt Peterson Motorsport (now Arrow McLaren) in IndyCar to engineer James Hinchcliffe’s automobile, earlier than working with Multimatic on Mazda’s DPi automobile in IMSA SportsCar Championship.
She was later appointed because the president of the FIA GT Fee.
Proton Competitors Ford Mustang LMGT3
Photograph by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Community
Gade is among the a number of high-profile engineers to affix Ford a yr earlier than it enters the WEC’s prime class in 2027.
The American marque has additionally employed Grant Clarke as trackside engineering supervisor. Clarke joins Ford after serving because the lead race engineer for McLaren in Components E, and brings endurance racing expertise from earlier roles at TF Sport and Prodrive.
Additional, Jean-Phillipe Sarrazin will transfer throughout from Porsche to Ford following the tip of the German producer’s Hypercar programme within the WEC. Sarrazin has spent most of his profession in sportscar racing paddocks, most lately serving because the race engineer for the #6 Porsche 963 LMDh that received the 2024 Hypercar title. His CV consists of stints at well-known groups comparable to Prema, G-Drive, Algarve Professional and Ligier.
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