It’s rare that a successful sportscar racing double act spans multiple manufacturers. Once strong foundations are built up, loyalty (and an accompanying pay bonus) typically keeps one or both drivers in the environment where they hit it big. Examples of both parties moving on to the same destination, then recapturing previous glories in entirely different surroundings without it being the result of a boardroom-level mandate (such as the one that triggered Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas switching from Porsche to sister brand Audi for the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours) are scarce.
But Dirk Muller and Joey Hand proved to be the exception to that rule when the former BMW colleagues, who together claimed the American Le Mans Series GT class title in 2011, were reunited at Ford and conquered the GTE Pro division at Le Mans 50 years on from the Blue Oval’s famous inaugural triumph. Fittingly, this one too came at the expense of Ferrari.
Both Muller, who started his career at Porsche and had a two-year spell at Ferrari (that yielded the 2007 FIA GT2 crown) between two stints at BMW, and Hand remain contracted to the Multimatic organisation that operated the Ford GT programme between 2016 and 2019. So, although the pair haven’t driven together in the past four years, they have now been colleagues on and off for well over a decade. Perhaps unsurprisingly therefore, Muller’s choice of Hand as his favourite team-mate isn’t motivated purely by their success.
“It’s probably something extremely unique – to call a team-mate a friend,” the 47-year-old explains. “In that kind of business, it’s [normally] like a working relationship. But Joey and myself - we are not 100% exactly driving the same way, but extremely close.
“What really I think suits both of us is that he knows, when he is doing set-up work, what I need and vice versa. We have the same kind of thinking. The sense of humour is the same, so it really fits well.”
Muller first encountered Hand in the 2009 ALMS upon rejoining BMW for its first entry into the series since 2001, when Muller had been part of the driver roster in the flame-spitting M3 GTR. The German shared a Rahal-run M3 E92 in the GT2 class with Tommy Milner, while Hand was paired up with Bill Auberlen in the sister entry.
Source: Autosport