Daniel Abt and Alexandre Imperatori will drive for Rebellion Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship this year.
They will join Austria’s Dominik Kraihamer in the #13 Rebellion R-One AER, which will make its race debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The #12 car will be driven by last year’s LMP1-L championship winning line-up of Nick Heidfeld, Mathias Beche and Nicolas Prost.
At 20 years old, Abt is best known for his single seater racing exploits. After successful spells in his native ADAC Formel Masters and German Formula 3 championships, he moved up to GP3 in 2012, winning the feature races at Spa and Monza. He then spent two years in GP2, before signing for Audi Sport Abt for the inaugural FIA Formula E Championship.
“I’m proud to be contesting the FIA WEC with Rebellion Racing,” said Abt. “This additional programme alongside Formula E is an enormous boost for me: I’ll drive a closed cockpit sportscar for the first time, share driving duties with two other team-mates and also make my debut at Le Mans in the 24 Hour race. Le Mans is an enduring motorsport legend – it’s a fabulous feeling to know that I’ll be there this year.”
Imperatori’s route to LMP1 is somewhat similar, although after stints in various open wheel formulae including Asian Formula Renault and A1GP he decided to make the switch to sportscars in 2011. Last season the 27 year old finished third in the FIA WEC’s LMP2 class with KCMG, winning the final two races of the season.
“I am very eager to start working with my new team-mates and contribute to the development of the car to get good results this season,” said Imperatori. “The challenge looks interesting with the new engine and I am confident that this will help us reach a new step.”
Bart Hayden, Rebellion Racing team manager, added, “We are very pleased to confirm our driver line-up for the 2015 season and it’s nice to have a good level of continuity in our team. We are a little late out of the starting blocks this year, but we firmly believe that our 2015 LMP1 cars will be even more competitive, so we are looking forward to getting the cars onto the track soon.”
