After a victory at Laguna Seca in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and a podium at Spa-Francorchamps in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), the Ford GTs are improving all the time. Andy Priaulx tells us that the progress made means the drivers have been able to take things a little easier recently: “Our to-do list gets shorter from race to race. Fortunately, before coming to Le Mans, we’ve had races in the United States and two rounds in the World Endurance Championship (WEC). That means we’ve got five races behind us now. The Le Mans Test Day went really well too, so all in all we’re gradually moving forward. I’m pleased that we’ve managed to stick to the roadmap.”

The new Ford GTs took to the Le Mans track for the first time on Test Day on Sunday 5 June . So was the outcome positive? “At Test Day, we finished tweaking the car’s settings. We’re not really going to work on that anymore. All we have to do now is adapt to the weather conditions this week, like all the other teams. It looks set to be quite changeable, especially during qualifying. The three of us will be taking turns behind the wheel to clock up some experience and to understand how the tyres react to the weather. That’s mainly what is at stake during qualifying as far as I'm concerned: which tyres, what weather...? Of course we want to do well during qualifying and be well positioned on the grid, but that’s not our main concern.”

Andy Priaulx finished third in the LM GTE class at Le Mans in 2011, in a BMW M3 with Dirk Müller and Joey Hand, after spinning badly off the track during the practice sessions. The previous year (2010), he collided with the Audi R15+ driven by Tom Kristensen during the race, putting paid to his ambitions for that year. So does Le Mans feel like unfinished business for the Brit? “Yes, I’ve got a job to do. But every time I come to Le Mans, it’s like starting over again. I don't look back at the past.”

His 2011 team-mates Dirk Müller and Joey Hand are also with Ford this year! Does the “reunion” mean that their third place with BMW in 2011 impressed Ford? “I think they looked at plenty of drivers before making their choice. I know they looked at all the driver set-ups entered in GT over the last few years, especially at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 2011, we drove reliably throughout the race, we did a good job, we could have won, so yes, that might have influenced their choice.” 

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