Ford is back in Supercars racing with the Mustang because the company wants to promote its expanding line-up of sports and performance models.
“You do these things for reasons and those reasons need to be there,” Ford Australia president Graeme Whickman told motoring.com.au.
“And the reasons were it’s the right strategy, we have the right vehicles now, we want to connect with customers in that space.”
Whickman officially confirmed the return in Melbourne this morning at a press function attended by representatives of the two major Supercars teams that race Fords -- DJR Team Penske and Tickford Racing -- as well as new Supercars boss Sean Seamer and Ford touring car icon Dick Johnson.
Today’s function also acted as a launch for the Blue Oval’s global motorsport and hot tuner brand Ford Performance in Australia and the first local look at two of its models destined for local sales.
The appointment of the Ford Ranger Raptor as the ‘Official Recovery Vehicle of Virgin Australia Supercars Championship’ from late 2018 was also announced today. The MY18 Mustang road car was also on show ahead of its August launch.
“It was a matter of waiting for the right time both from a product point of view and from an investment point of view,” Whickman said.
“So, we maintained that dialogue with the teams and it’s obviously transpired that we feel like we are going to have a very successful outcome with the Mustang on the track.
As we reported yesterday, the Mustang racer is being co-developed by the two local teams and Ford Performance. It will debut at the Adelaide 500 in March 2019, replacing the Ford FG X Falcon as a rival for the new Holden ZB Commodore.
But while our report pointed toward a twin-turbocharged V6 version of the Mustang lining up on the grid in the near future, the Mustang will debut in 2019 with a V8 engine carried over from the Falcon and will stick with the traditional powerplant for some time.
“We had a long discussion about powertrain and first and foremost we needed to be competitive,” Whickman said. “I think the field is pretty open as to where you might go with powertrain but our first toe back in the water is going to be with V8.”
The Ford Oz boss also confirmed the Mondeo had been considered early on as the potential basis for a Supercar under the Gen2 rules rather than the Mustang.
“We thought about it,” he confirmed. “We did the assessment and we decided Mustang was the right one.”
Ford Australia announced its withdrawal from Supercars racing in 2014 and completed the pull-out at the end of the 2015 season, the same year Mark Winterbottom won the championship for then factory-backed Prodrive Racing Australia (now Tickford Racing).
Whickman was the marketing and sales director of Ford Australia when the withdrawal was announced to a barrage of criticism and was president and CEO by the time it was completed.
Plans for a Blue Oval return to Supercar racing with the Ford Mustang coupe began last year, he revealed.
“We have been talking to the teams since the latter part of 2017 and working internally since the midpoint of last year, maybe a little bit earlier.
“We always knew that there was an opportunity, but we just needed to make sure that the planets were aligned and we started speaking to the teams from a technical and commercial feasibility point of view in the latter part of last year.
“We have been working with them for a number of months now, making sure we do that due diligence. We have involved the series as well and that was done more latterly. And that’s where we have arrived at.
“We never closed the door on Supercars in a strategic sense, right from back in 2014 … we always had the potential there. That’s what led us to where we are now.”
When it pulled out of Supercars Ford cited a need to invest money in developing the quality of customer experience at its dealerships and rolling out a new generation of imported vehicles, including Mustang. It also had to negotiate the closure of the Broadmeadows and Geelong factories in October 2016.
While he chose his words carefully, Whickman was clear the financial commitment from Ford to this new era did not rank with the multi-millions invested annually back in the 2000s when the Holden and Ford staged an all-out Supercars war.
No Ford team will be designated as a factory squad, unlike Holden which tips millions into the Red Bull Holden Racing Team and Nissan, which backs a four-car factory Altima squad.
While Ford Performance, DJR Team Penske and Tickford Racing work on bringing the Mustang Supercar to a technical reality, Whickman explained Ford Australia’s job is to manage the commercial aspects of the deal.
“We are looking for a decent performance on the track, but not underpinned by grandiose sums,” he said. “They need to be responsible sums being spent to achieve a good connection with racing enthusiasts and also achieving a good result out on the track.
“I think it starts with having a view that you have got to perform well on the track. There is no point in simply participating.
“We have an expectation that we should be competitive and that’s why we have partnered with the two teams who are competitive in the past and were long-term partners and of a high quality.
“So, we start with the point of view you want to be competitive, but sitting alongside that you have to be responsible from a financial point of view. You have to cut your cloth.”
Whickman acknowledged the anger and resentment generated by the 2015 pull-out, but expressed the hope Ford fans would welcome the factory back.
“There may be some customers and race enthusiasts who weren’t happy with the decision and you respect their opinion at the end of the day because that’s their opinion to hold,” he said.
“Hopefully they’ll see with this announcement, alongside our other Ford Performance offerings, we are a company that hasn’t wandered too far from what are our roots.
“But there was a period of time where we had to concentrate on other things. Now we are back. That’s how I would term it.”
Pictured: Ford's global Mustang GT4 racer