Rebellion Racing will return to the LMP1 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2016 for a full-season campaign, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Swiss privateer has been working with engine supplier AER over the winter to provide a package that can bring the Rebellion R-One chassis closer to the manufacturer-backed entries.
Six drivers have also been retained from the 2015 season to race on the nine-event WEC calendar this year: Nick Heidfeld, Nicolas Prost, Mathias Beche, Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Matheo Tuscher.
Last season Heidfeld, Prost and Beche sealed Rebellion’s fourth consecutive LMP1 Privateer title. The trio won races at Fuji and Shanghai, beating the sister car to the championship by 26 points.
“We have submitted entries for two cars for the full FIA WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans,” announced team manager Bart Hayden. “We will continue to use the AER P60 engine; last season it was a new installation in the Rebellion R-One chassis and whilst we achieved our target of taking the titles, there was still a lot of room for improvement on the reliability of the package.”
“Together with AER we have been working hard on addressing the issues that came up in 2015 and we will make the necessary steps forward. We have a testing programme scheduled already and, unlike last year where we missed the opening rounds of the season, this year we will be ready from the beginning and we will be at the WEC Prologue at Paul Ricard HTTT in March.”
The first round of the 2016 WEC is set to take place at Silverstone on April 17.
