Ford has named former Formula 1 racer Logan Sargeant among the first batch of drivers for its entry into the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class in 2027.
Sargeant will join existing factory drivers Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastian Priaulx in racing the as-yet-unnamed Ford LMDh, which will be based on an Oreca LMP2 chassis.
His appointment to Ford’s Hypercar programme follows a surprise appearance at WEC’s Bahrain rookie test in November, where he completed his first laps aboard the Ford Mustang GT3.
Ford LMDh chief Dan Sayers said the 25-year-old brings a “level of technical sophistication and high-downforce experience that is vital for a program of this scale”.
He added that recruiting an American in the team’s line-up was “a nod to giants like Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt”, who won the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours with the Ford GT40 Mk. IV.
Sargeant raced in F1 with Williams in 2023 and 2024, but was dropped by the team halfway through his second season due to a lack of results. His only points finish came at the 2023 US Grand Prix, where he finished 10th behind team-mate Alex Albon.
He had been due to contest the 2025 European Le Mans Series with IDEC Sport as part of a programme that could have led to a role with Genesis’ LMDh project in 2026, but withdrew from the championship on the eve of the season.
Sargeant returned to racing at the end of last year, contesting the final two rounds of the IMSA SportsCar Championship with the PR1 Mathiasen LMP2 team before taking part in the Bahrain rookie test.
While he is relatively new to sportscar racing, Rockenfeller and Priaulx bring a wealth of endurance experience with them.
Rockenfeller won the 2010 Le Mans during his long stint as an Audi factory driver that also saw him clinch the 2013 DTM title. He joined Ford’s stable of drivers in 2024 and spent the last season racing the Mustang GT3 in IMSA with multiple GTD Pro winner Priaulx.
The latter also has a long association with Ford through his father Andy Priaulx, who was a part of the Chip Ganassi-run Ford GT programme in the WEC between 2016 and 2019.
Ford also announced that both Rockenfeller and Priaulx will contest the 2026 ELMS season in the LMP2 ranks to prepare for their Hypercar programme, but stopped short of revealing the team they would race for, or explaining whether Ford would have any operational involvement.
No details were revealed about Sargeant’s plans for 2026, but he is already due to contest this month’s Daytona 24 Hours in an Oreca 07 entered by Era Motorsport.
Ford shares engine details
Exactly a year after Ford announced its plans to return to the top-flight of sportscar racing, the American brand has revealed key details of the powertrain that will underpin its LMDh prototype.
The Blue Oval has opted for a naturally-aspirated 5.4-litre V8 engine, an M-Sport-tuned version of which already does duty in the Mustang GT3, among other cars.
As with all other LMDh prototypes, Ford’s Coyote-based engine will be paired with a spec hybrid system designed jointly by Bosch, Xtrac and Williams Advanced Engineering.
Sayers said that “when you hear a Ford coming down the Mulsanne Straight at three in the morning, you shouldn’t have to look at the badge to know who it is.”
Ford clarified that the engine will be developed completely in-house, with its team in Michigan working in collaboration with the Red Bull Ford Powertrains division in Milton Keynes.
As revealed earlier, Ford will handle the operational aspects of its Hypercar project on its own rather than partnering with an independent team.
The race team will be based at a new facility in Banbury, UK, with Sayers - who previously helped set up Red Bull’s F1 engine programme - heading up the project.
Sayers’ previous background in sportscar racing includes working with Prodrive on Aston Martin’s Vantage GTE and GT3 efforts.
So far, Ford has only committed to a WEC Hypercar entry, with no indication yet of whether it could run a parallel programme in IMSA’s GTP class in the coming years.
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