WEC | Barker: “Mustang still needs to grow around the tyres”

It will be a tough debut for the Ford Mustang GT3s in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship.

The Blue Oval brand will return to compete in the top endurance series with the new model based on the Dark Horse, which in the LMGT3 class will be managed by Proton Competition.

Driving the two cars built and developed by Multimatic Motorsports will be Ryan Hardwick, Zacharie Robichon and Ben Barker for the #77 crew, while on the #88 we will have Giorgio Roda, Mikkel Pedersen and Dennis Olsen.

Barker is a veteran of years spent behind the wheel of the GR Racing Porsche and jumped at the chance to become an official Ford Performance driver for the continuation of his adventure in the series.

“Personally I'm really excited to have had this opportunity, Ford has a great history at Le Mans and this new program is truly wonderful”, admitted the Briton in the meeting with journalists attended by Motorsport.com.

The Mustang GT3 is still relatively new and it experienced its first real race at the very tough 24h of Daytona with the pair of Multimatic-branded officials in GTD PRO and a single example of Proton in GTD.

A debut that didn't go terribly badly in terms of performance, but clearly with some inevitable youth flaws for a vehicle that is in its very first battles against its rivals and already called upon to compete in the World Championship.

“The car has already faced the first event in Daytona, there were some small problems, but having driven it I can say that the sensations are really positive because I felt good about balance, handling and how it works”.

“It's great to start this adventure in the World Championship with Proton, but also to be involved with Multimatic and Ford Performance; the hope is to already obtain good results.”

One of the keys to this season full of unknowns and curiosities will revolve around the use of Goodyear tyres, which on GT3 cars is almost new for everyone, as Barker himself explains.

“We only carried out one test in Monteblanco with the new tyres, it seems to have gone very well even if we didn't lap much. There are still some question marks and we need to further develop the car around the tyres.”

“I myself still have little experience with the car and there will also be a lot to learn about how the race weekends and the races themselves develop. Basically the tires are very good and the car seems to behave well with them depending on the sets -up”.

“There is still a lot to understand and we will try to do it as quickly as possible, it will be very interesting and nice to see what will happen in Qatar.”

Proton Competition, Ford Mustang GT3, 2024 livery

Photo by: Proton Motorsport

Finally, the Cambridge native, born in 1991, wanted to thank GR Racing, with whom he ran his last races in the Asian Le Mans Series driving a Ferrari 296 GT3 and experienced important moments that put him on the path to becoming the standard bearer of an official manufacturer.

“I had an incredible opportunity to be able to race with such an important and historic brand, but my years in GR Racing were fantastic and I will certainly miss them a lot. We had wonderful experiences, like that of Le Mans last year.”

“The last race together in the Asian Le Mans Series was really emotional, but we will still remain good friends and no one knows what will happen in the future and whether there will be the opportunity to race together again.”

“But at almost 33 years old I'm in the prime of my career and opportunities to become an official driver don't come around every day, so when the offer came before me I jumped at it. I'm very excited to undertake this new project”.