Tincknell tired of sandbagging claims from “anti-Ford brigade”

Tincknell’s comments follow those of Ferrari driver Sam Bird, who said he found the pace ran by the four Ganassi-run Ford GTs during last weekend’s test to be suspicious. 

Prior to the test, Ford was handed a 20kg weight penalty in the latest round of Balance of Performance changes for the GTE Pro class, and had a change in its turbo boost curve that Tincknell believes is the equivalent of losing 15bhp.

The Briton pointed to the fact no such BoP changes were made for Ferrari, despite it having taken victory in the preceding Spa round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, as evidence that defending class champion Ford heads to Le Mans somewhat on the back foot.

“I find all the sandbagging stuff just a load of bollocks, to be honest,” Tincknell told Motorsport.com. “We’ve been hit pretty hard [by the BoP changes].

“I don’t know how anyone expects us to find that on top of where we were at Spa, where we were already beaten fair and square by Ferrari.

“I don’t think we’re in a great position, in all honesty. I think we’re in an okay position, but don’t expect four Fords streaking away at the front.

"The way the Corvette overtook me on the straight in the test day was pretty scary. 

“This whole anti-Ford brigade is annoying, but as a driver you just have to get in and drive.”

Asked how much he believed the BoP changes to be worth in terms of laptime, Tincknell replied: “The simulation was saying 20 kilos was worth six or seven tenths, and then just over a second for the power.

“We simulated 1.9 seconds we were going to lose when I was over in Canada, in the test day it was more like 1.5."

He added: “Let’s not forget Ferrari, who beat us in Spa, have had no BoP adjustment, and we’re 1.5 seconds down. 

"You see headlines, and other drivers crying about it on Twitter and stuff… it’s frustrating. I’m not overly confident, but maybe I’ll be surprised."