REBELLION Racing, the most successful private team in the recent LMP1 era, will be running one car in the FIA World Endurance Championship for the remainder of 2016 as the Swiss team makes parallel preparations for the 2017 season.
The technical regulations for LMP1 Privateer non-hybrid cars in the World Endurance Championship and at Le Mans 24 Hours will be modified for the 2017 season.The ACO and FIA confirmed changes to the LMP1 non-hybrid technical regulations with the aim of trying to close the gap to the factory hybrid entries and to make the category more attractive to new Privateer entrants.The technical regulations for LMP1 Privateer non-hybrid cars for 2017 include changes in the weight and the aerodynamics of the cars. The engine regulations will also be impacted.The investment to develop, design and build upgraded cars for the 2017 season is significant for a Privateer team and racing at the same time as making that investment is a big commitment.To be realistic regarding the effort, the Swiss team have elected to withdraw Rebellion R-One car number 12 from the forthcoming FIA WEC races.REBELLION Racing’s Rebellion R-One number 13 car will compete in the 2016 WEC “fly-away” races with its regular driver line-up of Alexandre Imperatori, Dominik Kraihamer and Matheo Tuscher behind the wheel.Bart Hayden, Rebellion Racing Team Manager : “The level of competition in LMP1 is being taken to ever greater heights by the Manufacturer entrants, so to improve our own competitiveness in the category, we feel the need to invest more time and resources into updating the Rebellion R-One cars ready for the 2017 season. As a small private team with limited resources, we have decided to focus on racing one car rather than two in the remaining FIA WEC events and this will allow us to put more effort into updating the cars for 2017. Earlier this year at Le Mans, the FIA and the ACO announced some changes to the regulations for privateer LMP1 cars for 2017 and we need to take those changes and make them into reality to put us in a more competitive position going forward.Splitting our focus between running one car in the remaining races and on updating the cars for next year will mean that we can continue to be a part of the World Endurance Championship whilst at the same time making sure that we are as competitive as possible next year.We have decided to continue racing with the Rebellion R-One number 13 as that car is closer in the LMP1 Privateer Teams championship points standings to our rivals at ByKolles and it makes the fight for the championship a bigger challenge.”
REBELLION Racing’s #13 Rebellion R-One AER race schedule for the remainder of 2016 :FIA WEC 6 Hours of Mexico / Mexico /September 3FIA WEC 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas / USA /September 17FIA WEC 6 Hours of Fuji / Japan / October 16FIA WEC 6 Hours of Shanghai / China / November 6FIA WEC 6 Hours of Bahrain / Bahrain / November 19
