Le Mans-winning engineer Leena Gade joins Ford’s WEC Hypercar programme

Ford has bolstered its preparations for its upcoming Hypercar programme in the World Endurance Championship by signing Le Mans 24 Hours-winning engineer Leena Gade.

The Briton will immediately begin work on Ford Racing’s new Oreca-based LMDh prototype, which will debut in the Hypercar class of the WEC in 2027.

The Blue Oval said her “deep understanding of the Circuit de la Sarthe and long-distance strategy makes her a cornerstone of Ford’s competitive ambitions.”

Born in the UK to immigrant Indian parents, Gade is best known for her role as a race engineer in Audi’s now-defunct LMP1 programme. During her uber successful stint in the WEC, Audi claimed outright wins at Le Mans in 2011, 2012 and 2014, along with multiple LMP1 world titles.

After Audi withdrew from the championship at the end of 2016, Gade moved to the United States and worked across different championships. In 2018, she joined Schmidt Peterson Motorsport (now Arrow McLaren) in IndyCar to engineer James Hinchcliffe's car, before working with Multimatic on Mazda’s DPi car in IMSA SportsCar Championship.

She was later appointed as the president of the FIA GT Commission.

Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3

Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network

Gade is one of the several high-profile engineers to join Ford a year before it enters the WEC’s top class in 2027.

The American marque has also hired Grant Clarke as trackside engineering manager. Clarke joins Ford after serving as the lead race engineer for McLaren in Formula E, and brings endurance racing experience from previous roles at TF Sport and Prodrive.

Further, Jean-Phillipe Sarrazin will move across from Porsche to Ford following the end of the German manufacturer’s Hypercar programme in the WEC. Sarrazin has spent most of his career in sportscar racing paddocks, most recently serving as the race engineer for the #6 Porsche 963 LMDh that won the 2024 Hypercar title. His CV includes stints at well-known teams such as Prema, G-Drive, Algarve Pro and Ligier.