The man behind Ford’s Le Mans return

Even before Jim Farley makes it across the Goodwood paddock to greet Autosport, he is engrossed in the people and machinery around him – and has a quick sit in the Ford GT40 he is set to race with Alex Brundle at the 82nd Members’ Meeting.

Then, on the way to the Spitfire hangar for our interview, he stops to embrace Romain Dumas and chat to Andy Priaulx.

Ford’s CEO is here not just to be seen or interviewed; he’s here because he wants to be, because he’s a motorsport person. That could help to explain why Ford is returning to the Le Mans 24 Hours in the top class in 2027, to chase its first outright victory in the French classic since 1969.

When we sit down, Farley explains in more detail why Ford has committed to the World Endurance Championship. “Because Hypercar and LMDh has enough competition that is interesting,” says the 62-year-old.

“I don’t think there’s a time in Ford’s history when we’ve competed in as many weekends and as many diverse events as we are now. This is absolutely the golden age of Ford motorsports” Jim Farley

“A few years ago it wasn’t that interesting. Our GT3/GTD Mustang is a part of it. Class wins are great, but an outright win at Le Mans is even better. The class and the company’s road cars have crescendoed at the same time. It seems the right time, though the easiest decision is to race. Winning is sufficiency so the hard part is in front of us.”

And that means making the right decisions. We want to know which chassis partner Ford is likely to use for the LMDh project, which team is involved and what the engine might be. Autosport understands that ORECA and a V8 based on the five-litre Mustang powerplant answer two of those questions, but Farley is far too smart and experienced to give much away.

He asks Autosport what sort of engine we think Ford should pick (a V8, obviously!), before adding: “There are decisions that are important for the outside world and there are decisions that are fundamental to us winning, and they tend to be different things.

“For us to make the commitment is what we’re focused on and we have lots of decisions to make. It’s not our first rodeo. We’re really focused on getting the right things in place. We know we have to put a technological solution on the track that’s going to have the best advantage when it comes to equalised performance. Those decisions are fundamental.”

Farley says it’s the level of competition in Hypercar and LMDh that makes it interesting – and has tempted Ford back

Photo by: Ford

That’s a reference to the challenge of coming up with an edge within a framework that is designed to keep the cars equal via Balance of Performance. It’s not dissimilar to the prototype-like Ford GT that rocked up and won the GTE Pro class on its Le Mans debut in 2016.

Farley is non-committal on whether the new machine will compete in the IMSA championship in Ford’s own back yard. But he is quick to give an answer when Autosport suggests that Ford’s motorsport commitment – which includes a return to Formula 1 in a collaboration with Red Bull Powertrains – harks back to the 1960s, the Cosworth DFV and four Le Mans wins.

“It’s much more than that,” he argues. “It’s more than the 1960s. We never did all the off-road stuff. There was no Dakar in the 1960s, there was no King of the Hammers [a major off-road race in the United States] in the 1960s. We had a Pikes Peak [entry] but it wasn’t a factory effort.

“I don’t think there’s a time in Ford’s history when we’ve competed in as many weekends and as many diverse events as we are now. This is absolutely the golden age of Ford motorsports.”

“What I’m most proud of is the off-road programmes. There is no Porsche of off-road. Great brands like Range Rover and Jeep have never defined themselves in motorsports, but Ford is and will be” Jim Farley

He has a point. As well as the Le Mans, F1 and off-road projects, Ford is active in NASCAR, Australian Supercars, drag racing, GT3, GT4… the list is almost endless.

To regular motorsport fans, perhaps the most surprising element is the importance of the Dakar Rally, in which Ford finished third on the M-Sport-run Raptor T1+’s event debut in the hands of Mattias Ekstrom. But there are sound commercial reasons – to go along with the enthusiasm for competition.

“What I’m most proud of is the off-road programmes,” explains Farley, who points to the success of the Bronco as well as the Raptor. “There is no Porsche of off-road. Great brands like Range Rover and Jeep have never defined themselves in motorsports, but Ford is and will be.

“The amount of customer profitability in enthusiast off-road products is something I’ve never seen in my career and I’ve been doing this for 40 years. The most profitable part of our enthusiast product is off-road.

Farley ran just outside the top 10 in the Gurney Cup before relaying Brundle

Photo by: Ford

“The on-road side is a very overserved market. The place where all the money is to be made in enthusiast products is off-road. We thought we’d sell 100-200 Raptors; it’s now a multi-billion-dollar business for us. Will it last? I think it will.”

The importance of Dakar to Ford also helps to underline why the World Rally Championship Puma programme run by M-Sport is less of a focus for the Blue Oval. “We really like Dakar,” confirms Farley.

“It’s the kind of rally that works for our business. That’s why Malcolm [Wilson, M-Sport boss] is involved in the Dakar effort; there is so much overlap between WRC and Dakar.

“Dakar is extremely important to Ford, way more than people think – it’s the global off-road race of the year. It’s the Le Mans of off-road racing. We care deeply about winning Le Mans and we care equally deeply about winning Dakar.

“The most important question is how does racing go from a marketing programme to a self-sustaining business. If it’s a self-sustaining business, it’s very difficult to take it apart” Jim Farley 

“Those are the two signature events of the year we’ll mark on the calendar and all hold our breath.”

So, was he happy with third on M-Sport Ford’s Dakar debut? “No! We didn’t win,” he shoots back, then a pause. “I was satisfied, but not happy. We race to win.”

The reason the off-road side should be important to sportscar fans is that the profitability of that element could contribute to longer-term motorsport involvement by Ford.

“The most important question for me is how does racing go from a marketing programme to a self-sustaining business,” continues Farley. “If it’s a self-sustaining business, like it is at Porsche or probably moments at Mazda, it’s very difficult to take it apart.

Farley has high respect for drivers such as Brundle (left), who took GT40 to sixth

Photo by: Ford

“The whole motorsport business depends on it being a discretionary activity. We’ve never seen this opportunity in motorsports for it to be self-sustaining because of off-road.

“They are enthusiasts as much as any GTV customer is. They spend more money on after-market modifications – and they are all new to us and there’s no competition. Everyone wants to talk about the enthusiast stuff on-road but no one’s really covering off-road.

“We have thousands of people going to our off-road rodeo every year, many more people than our on-road performance driving school. It’s jumping, high-speed, oversteering stuff.”

The other cornerstone to Ford’s motorsport involvement is more familiar, particularly to Porsche enthusiasts: making customer cars. They are part of Ford’s ladder that can take someone from enthusiastic road driver to racer.

“We’re going to make customer race cars – we’re not going to race factory outside of trying to win Le Mans. It’s a huge business of building race cars and supplying parts” Jim Farley 

“It’s setting up your racing programme with very extensive racing experiences for customers, so if they buy a Mustang or a Raptor anywhere in the world they can go to a school and really know how to use their vehicle,” says Farley.

“Then we have a pyramid, on-road racing or off-road, where they can move up from an enthusiast on-road product to a trackday product, to an amateur racing product, to a professional entry series, to a full WEC/IMSA/NASCAR/NHRA.

“We’re going to make customer race cars – we’re not going to race factory outside of trying to win Le Mans. It’s a huge business of building race cars and supplying parts.”

Key to the on-track part is the Mustang, adding credence to the theory that the Ford LMDh will be styled around the car that has been one of the company’s most famous in its various forms for over 60 years.

Mustang’s racing diversity is second to none, including Supercars, NASCAR, NHRA, IMSA, WEC, GT3 and GT4

Photo by: Ford

“No brand has the diversity of Mustang – Supercars, NASCAR, NHRA, IMSA, WEC, GT3, GT4,” enthuses Farley. “Where isn’t Mustang racing in the world?”

As we speak, the new Mustang Cup is kicking off at Nola Motorsports Park in the United States. The cars will also be on the support card at Le Mans: “Like Porsche Cup, we’re building a same-make series in multiple regions of the world and bringing all of them together at Le Mans.”

All of this makes business sense, but Farley combines that with genuine enthusiasm. He was key in helping organise Ford’s disparate collections of landmark designs from around America, and some of those will now be placed in Ford’s new engineering base for inspiration.

He also loves getting involved himself, which brings us back to the competition at Goodwood.  “I’m 62, I’m very realistic about my racing,” he reasons before finishing sixth in that evening’s Gurney Cup with Brundle. “I’m not going to take unacceptable risks.

“Racing gives me 45 minutes to not think about anything else, which I love. And I like doing it in a setting where it matters – Goodwood matters” Jim Farley

“I want to do a good job and make good decisions for the company. Racing is a key part of who I am as a person and also how I represent the company. I don’t do it because it’s a marketing campaign, I do it because I genuinely want to see [people like] Romain Dumas and Andy Priaulx; they’re an important part of our industry.

“Racing gives me 45 minutes to not think about anything else, which I love. I’m a competitive person and I don’t like the company just winning, I like competing personally. And I like doing it in a setting where it matters – Goodwood matters.

“I want to drive well here; I didn’t get much sleep last night. Not because I want to win, but because Alex is a great driver, it’s a beautiful car, it’s a sunny day, the car is set up just right and I haven’t driven here for two years. Once we’re out there, no one gives a s*** who I am, so you’d better drive nicely!

“Driving a good, competitive race is very satisfying, and on another level I’m meeting people like Romain and we have a bond that is different from another CEO that’s from finance.

Dakar has huge importance for Ford because of the popularity and profitability of the off-road sector

Photo by: Ford

“We have a common experience. They know I’ll never be as good as them, but they know I know what it’s like to mostly lose, which is what motorsport is, and that they don’t want to stop racing. I don’t know them intellectually; I know them emotionally. Racing to me is a multi-faceted, wonderful thing.

“I’m an automobile man. I work on my old cars at the weekend, my son works at Joe Macari. I go on rallies with my 4.5-litre Bentley with my daughter. I don’t just race, automobiles are my life – I’m a one-trick pony.”

Autosport isn’t used to talking to someone so high up a massive corporation who also has so much enthusiasm for motorsport. It’s hard not to think that Farley – who went to Goodwood for the first Revival in 1998 and was mistaken for a parking attendant by Nick Mason – is the sort of person you’d want in charge of any company involved in cars.

“To run Ford at this moment in time, we’re a brand that’s finding its way; Fiesta is not here; Focus is not here; the Chinese are here,” he says. “We can’t just look backwards. Ford has to rediscover what it’s good at. I’m not going to accept us making boring cars – and we’ve made a lot of boring cars over the years.

“Everything should be as emotional as a GT40 starting up. I want to set that tone. There are a lot of possibilities. We’re not making shampoo, we’re making cars and cars are emotional.

“That’s why I’m here and why I care deeply about racing. This is not work for me and there is no day off. I don’t want a day off. This is what I should be doing as boss of Ford.”

This article is one of many in the new monthly issue of Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the June 2025 issue and subscribe today.

Farley understands that cars are more than a commodity: “Everything should be as emotional as a GT40 starting up”

Photo by: Ford