Like hell they will. As I just said, Factory teams aren't allowed in GT3 (The only reason Corvette Racing was even allowed to in IMSA for the past seasons was because they ran a car modified to compete with GT3 cars while developing a bespoke GT3 car, otherwise they are the only true last full factory effort) so "Ford Racing" sure isn't going to be allowed with its purpose built GT3 car. At most, Maybe as Multimatic or someone else with Ford Support (And that Ford Racing livery possibly) in the form of drivers and some personnel but thats as close as "Factory" as your gonna get in a class thats primary about Customer Racing (Hence the likes of "Mercedes Customer Racing" or "Audi Customer Racing" throughout GT3).
If them's the rules then them's the rules I guess. Ford finally had a
public debut of the car on June 9 where they say it'll be a customer car offered globally, with Multimatic being the first IMSA operator and Proton the first WEC operator. Like you say, a Multimatic effort would be pretty dang close to a factory effort.
There were 24 cars entered into LMP2 at Le Mans this year. They're gone from the regular season next year and will probably be diminished at Le Mans with more new GT3 and LMH cars coming in. I can't wait to see what G56 car shows up but honestly I wouldn't mind giving a few of those spots to a NASCAR "class" in 2024. Send like four of those things over there to race for position and see what happens.
Alpine A424 Beta
www.motorsport.com
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(Yes, those are Alpine logo taillights)
Toyota GR H2 Racing Concept
www.motorsport.com
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ACO has announced that for 2024 onwards, the LMP2 class will no longer be part of the WEC grid, but it'll still be part of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
www.motorsport.com
Toyota and their hydrogen lol, whatever.
The only proactical thing I'm seeing about that car is the aesthetics. Let's hope Toyota debuts a TS060 or something which actually resembles a new Toyota car rather than just a blob prototype which they've been designing for decades now.
To me, BOP in the Hyperclass doesn't make any sense.
It's not the BoP that doesn't make sense, it's the
class itself. LMH is completely pointless. After Aston pulled out and completely ruined the entire point of it (I 100% agree with Jim Glick on this) LMH is useless. Road car relevance is gone, engineering advantages are gone, drivetrain advantages are gone, it's dumb as a category. The cars are awesome and arguably perform sliiiiiightly better than GTP cars but overall it's a moot point now. LMH is just a moneypit for OEMs determined to spend the money - tbf Ferrari had a good excuse after the FIA minimized F1 workforces.
So because engineering is no longer a marketing factor for LMH, airtime becomes the biggest thing. And companies aren't going to field cars that don't get attention on TV, so if all the cars are performing the same and racing in a pack, everybody gets a piece of the marketing pie. That's why BoP is necessary, because without it somebody will always get left behind (the fan favorite NASCAR got almost zero airtime partly because it wasn't actually pegged to a category BoP), and when they get left behind they quit because it's no longer worth the investment to come from behind. That's why all the glorious categories of the past died off. F1 is another example of a brand that has often struggled to maintain grids, and ultimately has had to move away from traditional European roots just to find investment and interest.
BoP is the lifeblood of LMH, without it LMH is pointless, and the evidence is that there will be twice as many GTP cars as LMH because it's way more accessible. Arguably GTP cars are actually
more relevant to OEMs because engineering decisions don't need to coalesce into the mold for performance, especially when it comes to drivetrains which so far come in four very different and unique-sounding flavors in GTP.
