Christian Ried is making a surprising comeback in the World Endurance Championship. The 45-year-old from Biberach is returning behind the wheel at the fifth WEC race of the 2024 season in Sao Paulo (July 12-14). Ried will drive the #88 Ford Mustang GT3 of his own racing team Proton Competition and replace regular driver Giorgio Roda for reasons that are still unclear.
According to Ried, it was a one-off affair. The team co-owner had actually ended his active career in the WEC after last year’s season finale. Ried went down in the history books of the World Endurance Championship as the only driver to have competed in every single race since the series debuted in 2012. He drove Porsche GT racing cars in all 85 races, and in 2018 he celebrated a GTE-Am class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Christian Ried ahead of WEC race debut with Ford Mustang
Now the 86th WEC race awaits in Brazil and the first in a Mustang. Ried shares the beefy GT3 car with his teammate Mikkel Pedersen and the former Porsche contract driver and current Ford works driver Dennis Olsen. Ried is listed with the FIA as a driver in the bronze category and thus meets the regulations that stipulate at least one bronze and one silver driver on every LMGT3 car.
Ford experienced a stuttering start with its new GT3 Mustang in the WEC and IMSA, but most recently at the 24 Hours of Le Mans it achieved its first major success: the #88 Proton Mustang took third place on the podium behind Manthey-Porsche and WRT-BMW. This result catapulted Olsen/Pedersen/Roda to eighth place in the drivers’ standings.
Racing driver and team boss in one: Ried under constant stress
Ried, who won two championships in the European Le Mans Series in addition to his WEC endurance race: “I’m looking forward to stepping in for Giorgio in Sao Paulo. But it will be a one-off. The races in Spa and Le Mans clearly showed that we were able to make up ground on our strong competitors.”
Ried is expecting an extremely stressful weekend in Sao Paulo, as his Proton team is now busy with a lot of things to do. In addition to the Mustang race in the LMGT3 class, the team is also running a Porsche 963 in the Hypercar category. Former Le Mans winner Neel Jani from Switzerland and his French teammate Julien Andlauer take turns at the wheel of the white-wrapped customer prototype from Weissach.
“We are also seeing an upward trend in the Hypercars, which makes one or two top placings for our Porsche 963 in the second half of the season seem like a realistic goal,” added Ried, who runs Proton Competition together with his brother Michael.
Christian’s son, 19-year-old Jonas Ried, recently made a guest start at Le Mans and drove an LMP2 car from his enterprising father’s team in his second 24-hour race. Ried Junior is competing in the ELMS as a regular driver in his fourth year in motor racing.