The head of Ford congratulated his driver on the record.
Jim Farley, head of Ford Motor Company, despite his high position, not only chairs meetings of the board of directors of the American automotive giant and participates in various business meetings, but also finds time for other activities that interest him.
For example, recently he personally conducted a half-hour conversation with Daniel Ricciardo as part of Drive with Jim Farley, the official Ford Racing podcast, the company's racing division, and yesterday he provided a detailed comment on his social media pages regarding the new record set by Ford at the "North Loop" of the Nürburgring.
"6:15:977! This is a new record set by the Ford GT Mk IV on the legendary German Nürburgring circuit," Farley writes. "Thus, the Ford sports car has become the fastest American car to ever complete a lap on this track, as well as the fastest car with an internal combustion engine.
Overall, our car took third place in the list of cars of any type that hold record laps on the Nordschleife, including racing cars and electric prototypes. Congratulations to Frédéric Vervisch and everyone at Ford Racing on this incredible achievement!
But it's not just about the record lap time. Ford and Ford Racing intend to continue pushing the boundaries of possibility, maintaining a constant process of learning, innovation, and development to delight our customers and fans with excellent products."
The Ford GT Mk IV is the racing version of the modern supercar, which traces its history back to the legendary GT40, which won the "24 Hours of Le Mans" four times in a row in the 1960s. Belgian Frédéric Vervisch, a factory driver for Ford, managed to significantly surpass the previous achievement held by American cars: it was 6:49.275 and was set on the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X.
The record-setting Ford is powered by a 3.8-liter EcoBoost V6 engine with two turbochargers, producing around 820 hp, and it has no hybrid systems.
The absolute track record of 20,830 meters since 2018 belongs to Timo Bernhard, who completed a lap in 5:19.546 in the Le Mans class Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo sports prototype, while the second place is held by Frenchman Romain Dumas – he stormed the "North Loop" in a specially designed electric car for record runs, the Volkswagen ID.R, and achieved a time of 6:05.335.
Since Max Verstappen plans to participate in the "24 Hours of Nürburgring" marathon in the coming months, and Ford is now a technology partner of Red Bull Racing, it is possible that the four-time world champion may want to return to his long-standing idea – to complete a lap of the Nordschleife in a Formula 1 car. Previously, he was prohibited from doing so, but who knows, perhaps the current leadership of his team and Red Bull will take a less rigid stance than Helmut Marko did in the past.
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The head of Ford congratulated his driver on the record.
Jim Farley provided a rather detailed comment on his social media pages regarding the new record set by Ford at the "North Loop" of the Nürburgring...