Ford drivers fed up with rivals' Le Mans 24 Hours sandbagging slurs

Prior to the test at the start of June, Ford was handed a 20kg weight penalty in the pre-event Balance of Performance changes for the GTE Pro class and had a change in its turbo boost curve - which that Tincknell believed was equivalent to losing 15bhp.

The Briton pointed to the fact no such BoP adjustments were handed to Ferrari, despite its victory in the previous round of the World Endurance Championship at Spa, as evidence that defending class champion Ford heads to Le Mans somewhat on the back foot.

Tincknell's comments come in the wake of Ferrari driver Sam Bird saying he found the lack of testing pace from the four Ganassi-run Ford GTs suspicious.

"I find all the sandbagging stuff just a load of bollocks, to be honest," Tincknell told Autosport.

"We've been hit pretty hard [by the BoP changes].

"I don't know how anyone expects us to find that on top of where we were at Spa, where we were already beaten fair and square by Ferrari.

"I don't think we're in a great position, in all honesty. Don't expect four Fords streaking away at the front.

"The way the Corvette overtook me on the straight in the test day was pretty scary.

"This whole anti-Ford brigade is annoying, but as a driver you just have to get in and drive."

Asked how much he believed the BoP changes to be worth in terms of laptime, Tincknell replied: "The simulation was saying 20 kilos was worth six or seven tenths, and then just over a second for the power.

"We simulated 1.9 seconds we were going to lose, in the test day it was more like 1.5s.

"Let's not forget Ferrari, who beat us in Spa, have had no BoP adjustment and we're 1.5 seconds down.

"You see headlines, and other drivers crying about it [Ford's performance] on Twitter and stuff... it's frustrating.

"I'm not overly confident, but maybe I'll be surprised."