Rebellion Racing

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The current emergency vehicle: The Rebellion R13 .

Rebellion Racing is a Swiss racing team that takes part in endurance races, team principal is Alexandre Pesci and the manager is Bart Hayden.

The team won overall victory in the LMP1 class in the 2011 Le Mans Series . From 2012 to 2016 they won the FIA ​​Endurance Trophy for private LMP1 teams in the FIA World Endurance Championship , and in 2017 they won the LMP2 classification. The team is currently competing in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship with two vehicles.

Development history

Two Rebellion Racing Lola B10 / 60 prototypes at the 2011 Le Mans 24-hour race .

The Speedy Racing Team , actually Speedy Racing - Team Sebah, was the predecessor of the Swiss racing team Rebellion Racing. In 2010 the team announced that it would henceforth take part in the Le Mans Series under the name Rebellion Racing. The Swiss watch manufacturer Rebellion acted as the main sponsor and namesake of the team.

On February 13, 2020, the Rebellion Racing team management announced that it would cease racing after the 2020 Le Mans 24-hour race .

Racing history

In 2011 Rebellion Racing and Toyota Motorsport GmbH from Cologne confirmed their plans for a partnership, Rebellion Racing was exclusively allowed to install the 3.4 L V8 engine named by Toyota RV8KLM in their prototypes. In October 2010 the two Rebellion Racing Lola LMP1 cars, type Lola B10 / 60 with Toyota engines, were completed. Tests in Portimão and Monteblanco followed shortly afterwards . The car with the number 12 was driven by the Swiss Neel Jani and the Frenchman Nicolas Prost , the car with the number 13 by the Italians Andrea Belicchi and the Frenchman Jean-Christophe Boullion . The team took part in the entire 2011 Le Mans Series and won the LMP1 team title with 51 points, one point ahead of the Pescarolo team . At the 2011 Le Mans 24-hour race, the number 12 car, which started from eighth place, finished sixth. It was the fastest car with a petrol engine . The third driver was the Dutchman Jeroen Bleekemolen . The car with the number 13, which started from tenth place, retired after 190 laps. The third driver was Guy Smith from Great Britain .

A Lola B12 / 60 in the colors of Lotus used by Rebellion Racing .

On February 1, 2012, the German Nick Heidfeld was the third driver of the number 12, new for the number 13 were the Dutch Jeroen Bleekemolen and the Swiss Harold Primat . The team changed the vehicle and entered the Lola B12 / 60 , the prototype has had the colors of Lotus since 2012 : black and gold. Rebellion won the award for the best-placed private LMP1 team in the newly created FIA World Endurance Championship. At the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, the number 12 car, which started from eighth place, finished fourth behind three Audis . As in the previous year, it was the fastest car with a gasoline engine. Number 13, who started from ninth place, moved up to eleventh place. The team also took part in the Petit Le Mans , the season finale of the American Le Mans Series , which they won with first overall position.

For the 2013 season of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship, the number 12 drivers remained unchanged. With the number 13, next to Andrea Belicchi, the Chinese Congfu Cheng and the Swiss Mathias Beche drove . Rebellion managed to defend the FIA ​​Endurance Trophy for private LMP1 teams, as the only team to contest all of the WEC's rounds in this category. The team had a lot of bad luck at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2013 : In difficult conditions, Andrea Belicchi caused a serious accident with car number 13, in which he injured himself. Car number 13 took seventh place in the LMP1 classification, car number 12 took eighth place. The latter car with the stronger driver trio stood in the pits for a long time due to vibrations in the car. After the incidents, both cars were only sent on the last lap to be classified and to receive championship points. This year the team took part in selected races of the American Le Mans Series and was able to repeat the overall victory of the previous year at the Petit Le Mans.

A Rebellion R-One at the 2014 Le Mans 24-hour race.

In June 2013 it was announced that Rebellion will continue to compete in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship in the 2014 season with an LMP1 vehicle called R-One , which was developed jointly with Oreca . On the engine side, the cooperation with Toyota Motorsport GmbH continued. The rollout of the vehicle was planned for mid-March 2014 and the racing debut took place at the 6-hour race in Spa-Francorchamps. The team again won the FIA ​​Endurance Trophy for private LMP1 teams; at the 2014 Le Mans 24-hour race , the car with number 12 and the drivers Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Mathias Beche took fourth overall position.

For the 2015 season of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship, the team changed engine partners as Toyota discontinued the LMP1 customer program. Instead of Toyota, engines from the British company Advanced Engine Research were now used. Due to this change, the team missed the first two races of the season, but was still able to win the FIA ​​Endurance Trophy for private LMP1 teams. The 2015 Le Mans 24-hour race did not go well for the team, with the two cars only taking positions 18 and 23.

Rebellion Racing was able to win the FIA ​​Endurance Trophy for private LMP1 teams again in 2016. At the Le Mans 24-hour race in 2016, the racing team was plagued by severe problems, the number 13 car was not classified and the number 12 sister car only achieved 29th place overall. At the end of the year it was announced that they would leave the LMP1 class and start in LMP2 in 2017.

At the beginning of 2017, the racing team took part in the Daytona 24-hour race with an Oreca 07, with the British company Gibson Technology as its engine partner . The team could not live up to its role as favorites and only reached 30th place after technical problems. For the 2017 season, the Rebellion Racing Team started in the LMP2 class of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship. The team took part under the name Vaillante Rebellion , the name was part of a partnership and is intended to remind of the comic figure Michel Vaillant . The racing team managed to win the overall standings in the LMP2 class, and in the 2016 Le Mans 24-hour race they achieved 16th overall position.

Due to some rule changes, which should make private teams more competitive in the LMP1 class, the racing team took part again in the LMP1 class of the endurance world championship for the so-called "super season" 2018/2019. The racing team had Oreca develop a new prototype based on the LMP2 vehicle. Gibson Technology remained engine partner and provided a 4.5 L V8 engine called the GL458. At the 6-hour race at Silverstone 2018 , the team achieved the first victory of a private team in a race in the endurance world championship. In 2019 Rebellion Racing achieved their first win of the season at the 4 Hours of Shanghai . In which the two (braked by success ballast) plant - Toyota 050 hybrid TS beat.

Web links

Commons : Rebellion Racing  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Team Sebah. sebah-racing.com, accessed December 26, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Speedy Racing Team Sebah becomes Rebellion Racing. motorsport.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Rebellion will cease racing after the 2020 Le Mans 24-hour race
  4. ↑ Interview with Alexandre Pesci, Rebellion Racing Team Principal. motorsport.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fiawec.com
  6. ↑ Rebellion Racing takes their first ALMS win at Petit Le Mans. motorsport.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated August 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fiawec.com
  8. ↑ Kristensen / McNish / Duval Triumph: Mourning and Joy. motorsport-total.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Rebellion Racing repeats at Petit Le Mans, captures ALMS finale. motorsport.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Rebellion and Oreca build new LMP1 for 2014. Accessed October 6, 2018 .
  11. ^ Rebellion and ORECA join forces to build LMP1. motorsport.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Rebellion: An R-One should be ready in time for the test. motorsport-total.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Knowledge is power - AER Ltd and a big LMP1 adventure. motorsport.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Rebellion Racing is leaving the LMP1 class and switching to the LMP2 from 2017. motorsport-magazin.com, accessed on October 6, 2018 .
  15. ↑ WEC 2017: Rebellion presents vehicle design. motorsport-total.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Rebellion R 13: In seven months from LMP2 to LMP1. motorsport-total.com, accessed October 6, 2018 .