Intro
Ford and HRT will bring an Evo version of the Mustang GT3 in 2026. The team aims to use the package to sharpen performance after its debut year. HRT team principal Ulrich Fritz says the team has not yet reached its full potential and hopes the Evo will change that.
What has changed on the front end?
The biggest intervention seems to be concentrated at the front. The Mustang is a front-mid engine with a big V8. As a result, the car appears to generate too little downforce on the front axle. In footage from test days, a small flap is visible in front of each front wheel. Those flaps are meant to create extra downforce.
In previous tests at the Nürburgring-Nordschleife, those flaps were already visible. This indicates that Ford and HRT have been working on a solution for some time. Until now, ventilation of the front wheel housing was provided via three louvers on top of the mudguard rim. That setup does not appear to be optimal and is presumably the reason for the update.
In addition, new rims have been developed to extract air from the wheel housing. That negative pressure can provide additional downforce on the front axle. Furthermore, Multimatic engineer Lewis Jones reports that the result of all the modifications amounts to an ‘optimised car’. Ford engineer Alex Allmandinger says data from several years have been compiled into the Evo package.
- New flaps in front of the front wheels for extra downforce
- Modified rims that exhaust air from the wheel housing
- Revision of wheelhouse ventilation instead of just louvers
What does this mean for DTM performance?
The aim of the Evo package is not only more front axle grip, but also less tyre wear. Tyre wear was a major concern with the Mustang. The brakes are also being tinkered with, a weak point according to insiders. If these points improve, lap times and qualifying results should benefit.
In the Ford premiership season, HRT often finished in the rear midfield with Arjun Maini and Fabio Scherer. Qualifiers provided little oomph and that made it difficult to drive to the front. Highlights were two fifth-place finishes by Maini at the Norisring and at Spielberg. In Austria, podium potential seemed present, but a poorly executed pit stop on Saturday and a faulty driveshaft on Sunday removed those chances.
Ford recently published a test video in the US with a grey Mustang Evo. Both Ford and the team are still keeping many details close to the chest, but the visible changes and earlier tests on the Nordschleife show that targeted work is being done to address the Mustang's weaknesses. Whether that leads to the first podium in the DTM in 2026 remains to be seen in practice.
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