Ford is rolling out an evolved Mustang GT3 package for the upcoming season, with its competitive debut set for the 24 Hours of Daytona at Daytona International Speedway. Rather than a complete redesign, engineers treated the update as a careful evolution, drawing on two full years of global racing experience to refine the platform without betraying more than 60 years of Mustang racing heritage.
The Mustang GT3 has served as Ford’s flagship global sports car racing platform, and the new EVO package reflects lessons learned across series and continents. Working closely with partners and customer teams, Ford focused on incremental but meaningful gains, ensuring the updated car remains unmistakably Mustang while becoming more competitive and more drivable for a wide range of driver skill levels.
Three Pillars of Performance: Aero, Kinematics, Braking
Ford’s development effort centered on three core areas: aerodynamics, kinematics, and braking. Every change was made with a single objective in mind – to keep the Mustang GT3 at the cutting edge of global GT competition, whether it is racing on tight, technical tracks or long, high-speed circuits.
This holistic approach recognizes that modern GT racing success depends on how well these systems interact, not just how strong each is in isolation. By evolving aero, suspension behavior, and braking together, Ford aimed to deliver a more balanced, predictable car that rewards both amateur and professional drivers.
Aerodynamics: More Downforce, More Stability
The updated aerodynamics package targets higher overall downforce and greater efficiency across a wide variety of racetracks worldwide. Engineers have added aggressive double dive planes and revised the front splitter and rear diffuser, collectively delivering significantly more front-end bite while reducing sensitivity to ride height changes.
A major goal was to create a more stable, consistent aero platform that holds up as conditions, circuits, and ride heights vary. That consistency is vital for customer teams and mixed driver lineups, helping Bronze, Silver, and Pro-rated drivers alike feel confident whether they are attacking tight venues like WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca or high-speed icons like Circuit de la Sarthe.
Development in the Wind Tunnel and on Track
Ford’s aero evolution for the Mustang GT3 has been underway since 2023, combining extensive wind tunnel work with a heavy schedule of real-world testing. The car has turned countless laps at circuits including Portimão, Laguna Seca, and Watkins Glen International, with each session feeding data back into the development loop.
That test program has gradually transformed the Mustang GT3 from its original 2024 configuration into the evolved package that will debut competitively at Daytona. The result, Ford says, is a car that balances outright performance with the predictability and drivability that customer teams demand over long stints and long seasons.
Kinematics: Suspension Tuned to Match the Aero
To complement the new aero package, Ford revised the Mustang GT3’s kinematics at both the front and rear, reshaping the car’s dynamic behavior. After racing on a wide range of circuits and tire compounds around the world, Ford engineers identified how and where the car needed to operate to unlock the most from different tires.
Key updates include creating a more stable mechanical platform and tuning characteristics like anti-dive and camber gain. These changes help the car better exploit available grip and fully capitalize on the updated aerodynamic load, reinforcing the philosophy that, especially in motorsport, vehicle dynamics and aerodynamics must be developed in unison.
Braking: Endurance-Proven, Sprint-Ready
Braking emerged as another area where Ford saw room for continuous improvement, aimed at rounding out a more complete performance package. Longtime partner Brembo supplies the hardware, maintaining continuity with production Mustangs, the track-focused Dark Horse R, and the Mustang GT4.
Testing has shown Brembo’s system delivers the durability and performance demanded by endurance racing, from Le Mans and Spa to defending class wins at Daytona and the ADAC RAVENOL 24h Nürburgring. Ford also reports gains in braking efficiency and peak deceleration, improvements that are especially important in sprint formats like DTM, SRO GT World Challenge, and Ford’s “home race” on the streets of Detroit.
From Learning Season to Global Winner
The Mustang GT3’s 2024 debut season was treated as a learning year, as Ford refined not only the car but also team operations and Ford Racing processes. Those efforts laid the groundwork for a breakout 2025 campaign, highlighted by victories at some of sports car racing’s most prestigious events.
According to Ford, the Mustang GT3 racked up 14 global wins, a milestone credited to the combined work of Multimatic Motorsports, M‑Sport, Ford Racing engineers, and customer teams worldwide. That success has validated the platform and reinforced internal motivation to keep pushing the Mustang GT3 even further.
Sharpened for the Off-Season and Beyond
As the off-season begins, Ford emphasizes that the Mustang GT3 is not standing still – it is being sharpened. Engineers are refining every component so that when the car returns to the grid, it does so in fully evolved, “unbridled and unleashed” form, ready to fight for more wins in 2026 and beyond.
For Ford Racing Global Sports Car manager Alex Allmandinger and his team, the latest Mustang GT3 evolution embodies a relentless pursuit of performance backed by data and driver feedback. The coming season at Daytona and around the globe will reveal just how far this iconic nameplate can go in its newest GT3 guise.
