Ford will announce its Le Mans 24 Hours return in 2016 in the GTE class on Friday.

The car giant has revealed that it will be making “a major Ford Performance news announcement”, which is known to be confirmation of its plans to race the new Ford GT from 2016, ahead of this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours on Friday afternoon.

Ford is expected that it will confirm two-car assaults with the Multimatic-developed racer on the World Endurance Championship and the Tudor United Sportscar Championship.

It is believed that a team put together by Multimatic and running out of the UK will mastermind the WEC campaign and Chip Ganassi Racing will run the USC programme, joining the sister squad for a four-car assault on Le Mans in June.

Drivers are unlikely to be confirmed at this stage.

It is known Ford has been trying to lure some of the established stars of the GTE division and, presuming it has been successful in some cases, it would not want to make an announcement ahead of the biggest race of the season for their existing employers.

The racing version of the carbon-chassis Ford GT will be powered by a version of the Roush Yates-tuned 3.5-litre EcoBoost twin-turbo V6 already raced in the Prototype class of the USC.

Ford’s return to Le Mans has been timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first of its four consecutive victories in the 24 Hours from 1966.