Ford will not return to V8 Supercars with new regulations

Ford will not return to the V8 Supercars with the new Gen2 regulations being introduced in 2017 which allows for the Mustang model to be used.
“We don’t see that at the moment and it’s not in the future plans. People want us to race nearly every category around the world and we just can’t do that,” said David Pericak, global head of Ford Performance, to motoring.com.au.

Ford Australia ended its cooperation with Prodrive Racing Australia after the 2015 V8 Supercars season, the very season when their driver Mark Winterbottom claimed the drivers’ title.

Despite that, Pericak says that V8 Supercars does not meet the criteria set by Ford for motorsport.

“Where we participate needs to be a good return on our investment and what we are trying to achieve with racing. We are not racing just to race. We are racing to make sure we learn, we develop new tools and we develop our engineers. And obviously we use that to bring it into the product development of the cars we put in peoples’ driveways. So that is a series we have decided doesn’t fulfill all of those needs and that is why we have decided to exit that series,” said Pericak.

Despite the decision, six Fords will be on the 2016 V8 Supercars grid with four from Prodrive Racing Australia and two from DJR Team Penske.