Rebellion Racing was a Swiss racing team that competed in endurance racing. The team competed in the2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup season and won the LMP1 teams' title in the2011 Le Mans Series season. The team started as an association between Speedy Racing and Sebah Racing, which began in 2008. Rebellion Racing's last team principal was Alexandre Pesci and the team manager was Bart Hayden.[1]
From 2012 to 2016 the team participated in theFIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP1 category as a privateer, with twoLola B12/60 cars from 2012 to 2013, and twoRebellion R-One cars from 2014 to 2016. In 2017 the team moved to the LMP2 category with twoOreca 07 cars.[2] Rebellion Racing would move back up to the LMP1 class in the2018–19 FIA WEC &2019–20 FIA WEC seasons with itsR13 Gibson 4.5L V8 powered prototype until ending its operations after the2020 24 Hours of Le Mans.
On 4 December 2019, it was announced that from the 2022-23 Season onwards, the team would be set to become the factory team of Peugeot Sport, and will runLe Mans Hypercars in theFIA World Endurance Championship as Rebellion Peugeot.[3] However, on 13 February 2020, it was announced by the team's parent company, Rebellion Corporation, that following a strategic committee meeting, it was decided that the firm would cease its motorsport business operations after the2020 24 Hours of Le Mans.[4][5]
In 2011, Rebellion Racing and Toyota Motorsport GmbH confirmed their plans for a Le Mans Prototype LMP1 engine supply partnership. Two Rebellion Racing Lola LMP1 cars powered by Toyota engines in LMP1. At the end of October 2010, Rebellion Racing and Toyota Motorsport engineers conducted an evaluation test programme at Portimao, Portugal and Monteblanco, Spain. The team have renewed the contracts of its regular 2010 drivers.Neel Jani /Nico Prost andAndrea Belicchi /Jean-Christophe Boullion will again spearhead the Rebellion Racing attack.[1]
At the2011 24 Hours of Le Mans, the no. 12 car of Nico Prost/Neel Jani/Jeroen Bleekemolen qualified 8th and finished 6th overall. It was the first gasoline finisher. The no. 13 car of Andrea Belicchi/Jean-Christophe Boullion andGuy Smith retired after 190 laps.
Rebellion won the LMP1 teams' title with 51 points, 1 point more thanPescarolo Team, which came courtesy of Neel Jani's pole position.[6]
In the season finale inZhuhai, the top gasoline-powered LMP1 car was the Rebellion team's Toyota-engined Lola coupe driven by Neel Jani and Nico Prost. It came back from an unscheduled stop to change front and rear bodywork, after Jani ran into the back ofAllan McNish's Audi R18, to overhaul theOAK Racing OAK-Pescarolo driven byAlexandre Premat,Olivier Pla andJacques Nicolet for fourth position and[7] scored the points needed to secure third place in the Team classification in LM P1 of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, behind the turbo diesels of the Peugeot and Audi factory teams.[8]
On 1 February 2012, it was announced that German driverNick Heidfeld would drive a Rebellion Lola-Toyota in select rounds of theFIA World Endurance Championship. Heidfeld will share the wheel of the Anglo-Swiss squad's No. 12 LMP1 entry withNeel Jani andNico Prost at the Twelve Hours of Sebring, Six Hours of Spa and 24 Hours of Le Mans. He completes Rebellion's lineup, withJeroen Bleekemolen having been announced on 31 January as the third driver in the No. 13 Lola-Toyota withAndrea Belicchi andHarold Primat.[9]
Rebellion Racing entered the2012 Petit Le Mans to attempt to score an overall victory at the race since Audi chose to not enter the race. After early battling with Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, the latter crashed when attempting to pass a GT car, allowing Rebellion to lead the rest of the race and win Petit Le Mans.
Rebellion Racing participated in both the2013 FIA World Endurance Championship season and2013 American Le Mans Series season. But in July, midway through the season, the team decided to end its ALMS programme and focus on the WEC. After that, it only contested the Petit Le Mans series finale at Road Atlanta in October.[10] Rebellion Racing took their second consecutive overall victory at Petit Le Mans, after Muscle Milk Pickett Racing again retired halfway through the race.[11]
On 8 June 2013, Rebellion confirmed they have entered a partnership withOreca to design and build their own LMP1 car, the Rebellion R-One. The car debuted at the 2014 Spa 6 Hours in the 2014FIA World Endurance Championship and continues to use Toyota engines.[12]
On 3 February 2015, Rebellion Racing announced a new engine partnership for the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season. The Rebellion R-One LMP-1 cars will be powered by twin-turbo engines fromAdvanced Engine Research. Rebellion Racing will use AER P60 V6 GDI twin-turbocharged power units.[13]
On 25 March 2015, it was announced thatAlexandre Imperatori andDaniel Abt had signed up with the team to pilot the squad's second car alongsideDominik Kraihamer.[14]
The Rebellion R-One LMP1 cars continued to be powered by AER P60 V6 GDI twin-turbo engines fromAdvanced Engine Research while also usingDunlop Tyres after previously usingMichelin tyres. Their driver line-up would beNick Heidfeld,Nico Prost andNelson Piquet Jr. withMathias Beche in round 4 in the #12 entry car. The #13 entry car's drivers would beDominik Kraihamer,Alexandre Imperatori andMathéo Tuscher.
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After a four-year hiatus, Rebellion Racing participated in theWeatherTech SportsCar Championship which started at the24 Hours of Daytona in January. The team also decided to switch to the LMP2-class in the2017 FIA World Endurance Championship.[15] The team was renamedVaillante Rebellion, following a partnership with Editions Graton, the publishers of the French comicVaillante.[16]
In 2018 the WEC switched to a winter calendar. Rebellion Racing returned to the LMP1 class with the new Rebellion R13 prototype, and two full season entries. They competed in both the 2018 and 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans, achieving a 3rd place in the 2018 edition. This season the team also achieved their first overall win in the WEC at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, after the two Toyota cars got disqualified after the race. The team finished 2nd in the teams' championship.
Rebellion Racing announced a single full-season entry for the 2019–2020 season, with another entry set to be entered on a race-by-race basis depending on sponsorships. The second entry was raced at Silverstone, Spa and Le Mans. The team took their first "on track" victory at the 4 hours of Shangai, with the #1 car qualifying in 1st place and winning the race, becoming the first privateer team to do so in the WEC's history. The same happened at that year's Lone Star Le Mans, where the team took their last win. Rebellion Racing's last race was that year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, the second to last race on the calendar, after which the team retired from motorsports following a decision taken by its parent company, Rebellion Corporation.
| Le Mans Series results[17] | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Class | Car | No. | Drivers | Races | Wins | Poles | Fast laps | Points | T.C. |
| 2007 | GT2 | Spyker C8 Spyder GT2-R | 94 |  Jonny Kane Andrea Chiesa Andrea Belicchi | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 6th |
| 2008 | LMP2 | Lola B08/80-Judd | 33 | Andrea Belicchi Xavier PompidouSteve Zacchia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 7th |
| GT2 | Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2-R | 94 | Andrea Chiesa Benjamin LeuenbergerIradj Alexander | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 7th | |
| 2009 | LMP1 | Lola B08/60-Aston Martin | 13 | Marcel FässlerAndrea BelicchiNico Prost | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 5th |
| LMP2 | Lola B08/80-Judd | 33 | Xavier PompidouJonny Kane Benjamin Leuenberger | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 2nd | |
| 2010 | LMP1 | Lola B10/60-Rebellion | 12 | Neel JaniNico Prost | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 3rd |
| 13 | Andrea BelicchiJean-Christophe BoullionGuy Smith | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 44 | 5th | |||
| 2011 | LMP1 | Lola B10/60-Toyota | 12 13 | Neel JaniNico ProstAndrea BelicchiJean-Christophe Boullion | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 51 | 1st |
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