Are Gran Tourismo Star Jane Mardenboro returning to Ford for Le Mans?

For Gen mardenboroIt is for a self-promotion in 2021.

The 2011 GT Academy was at an intersection in the winning life, just left the Nissan Super GT program, which left him without a full -time drive for the year.

This not only marked the end of the five -year term for Japan’s top sportscar championship, but possibly the end of a professional career that extended for a decade. Their options were thin, the world was still struggling with the Kovid -19, but was firm to force Mardenboro to force her own way.

The journey was clearly difficult. Mardenboro revealed the time of self-doubt, and the best he could do muster, in 2021 and 2022 there was a simulator role for the Nissan Formula E team in 2021 and 2022.

But now, after the three-closed race since 2023, Joe Mardanboro believes that the 33-year-old placed a full-time racing seat once again. He will contest the 2025 GT World Challenge Europe with a factory-supported Ford Mustang GT3 in the Europe season with co-driver Thomas Drout and. Arjun mani,

“This must have been a bit faster than I am estimated by Mardenboro,” Mardanboro told Motorsport.com, but I am proud that I managed to find the right people to find myself together to put a package together, where I can show my performance.

“I still have achieved ambitions and goals that I want to achieve, and I have to do more. Was there a time to reflect really within these four years and ask for myself: ‘Do I want to continue to do so? Do I want to continue moving through the difficult times of pain and rejection?’ – And yes … it is always yes. “

Mardenboro has a solid career so far, claiming victory in the British GT, GP3 series, Super GT and Japanese Formula 3. Let’s do not forget their class podium on debut in 24 hours in 2013.

But Mardenboro is definitely most known Gran Tourismo The film was released in 2023 which is based on his career. Because Cardiff origin has no story.

He once wanted to become a professional racer, yet his family was unable to give carting and other traditional routes in motorcysts. This left online racing as the only Avenue for a young Mardenboro to stay in contact with its passion.

And it appeared in the beginning that the passion would hold him back in a way. He left for the university to study motorsport engineering, but there is no information about what to do for future career soon, thinking that driving was out of question.

He spoke of a parallel universe, where he is “designing furniture for DFS”. This could have been a reality easily, it was not for the GT Academy, a SIM racing competition that he applied during his interval year.

The goal of the competition was simple: to search for a future racer through online events, in which Mardenboro overcade over 90,000 other SIM racing enthusiasts to become champions.

His award? A professional contract with Nissan offers an opportunity to kickstart a long and successful career that a teenage mardenboro never thought.

So this is quite a story, which has inspired others a lot. As Mardenboro enters a “fully new chapter”, he knows that this time is not just her, but many others who are expecting to follow Welshman.

“The situation is quite different for 2011,” he says, “because I have many people who see me.

“It always surprises me, the messages that I get – especially from the young audience – those who have joined the motorsport because they have seen the film. So it’s something that I am very blessed with.

“When things are difficult, I can pull out and ‘can be fine, it’s not just you now, these are other people who see you, so suck it and move forward with it.”

So the pressure to deliver is on Mardenboro, at the end of this week, the circuit Paul begins with a six-hour season-opener in the record. He is “confident that I can get at a straight speed”, but perhaps even more importantly, Mardanboro is in an organization that feels like a real home.

He said, “I have gone into a new environment with a manufacturer, who wants to make my name loud in sportscar and GT racing.”

“So there is a place for me to grow. I think I have the value that I can give, not only as speed, but also in a team and package that does not want to talk about one year, they want to compete with big boys. They give me a lot of confidence that they want to win.”

A successful campaign in the GT World Challenge that can bring opportunities endless. But Mardanboro has only one goal in the mind, and it is officially to become a “Ford Factory Driver”.

Ford has recently been making headlines in the sports world. Its history within the space is well documented, for example four consecutive wins in Le Mans in the late 1960s, but it is expected that the story is not over yet.

This is because the American Market has already announced that he will return to Circuit de La Sarate to fight for overall honor in 2027, as part of an LMDH program in the World Dheej Championship – something that is “exactly” on Mardenboro’s mind.

“Let’s not green around the bush, this is where I want to be,” he concludes. “That’s why I joined the program in the first place. Of course, people probably talk of push to hypercar, so it is a ladder.

“I am confident that I have credentials, experience and speed to be a factory driver. I think I can get a lot of value, and it’s a good place for me right now.

“I can only take it day by day. It is there, I don’t know how it is being achieved, which route I will take, but as long as I am doing my best – what will happen, what will happen, what will happen.”