Rebellion Racing was a Swiss racing team that competed in endurance racing. The team competed in the

2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup season The 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup was the second and final Season running of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's (ACO) Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, an international auto racing championship for manufacturers and teams. The Cup featured enduran ...

and won the LMP1 teams' title in the

2011 Le Mans Series season The 2011 Le Mans Series was the eighth season of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's Le Mans Series. The series began on 3 April with the 6 Hours of Castellet and ended after five rounds on 25 September. It is a series for Le Mans Prototype and G ...

. 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. From 2012 to 2016 the team participated in the

FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship, abbreviated as WEC, is a world championship for automobile endurance racing organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The se ...

in the LMP1 category as a privateer, with two Lola B12/60 cars from 2012 to 2013, and two Rebellion R-One cars from 2014 to 2016. In 2017 the team moved to the LMP2 category with two

Oreca 07 The Oreca 07 is a Le Mans Prototype built by French manufacturer Oreca to meet the 2017 FIA and ACO LMP2 regulations. It made its official race debut in the opening round of the 2017 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the 24 Hours of Dayt ...

cars. Rebellion Racing would move back up to the LMP1 class in the 2018–19 FIA WEC & 2019–20 FIA WEC seasons with its R13 Gibson 4.5L V8 powered prototype until ending its operations after the

2020 24 Hours of Le Mans The 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''88e 24 Heures du Mans'') was a 24-hour Endurance racing (motorsport), automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and LM GTE, Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars fielded by teams of th ...

. 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 run

Le Mans Hypercar A Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) is a type of sports prototype race car that competes alongside LMDh entries in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. It also competes in the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class of the IMSA SportsC ...

s in the

as Rebellion Peugeot. 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 the

2011 season

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 Neel Jani (born 8 December 1983) is a Swiss people, Swiss professional racing driver. He achieved his greatest success winning the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2016 after first joining Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche's Le Mans Pro ...

Nico Prost Nicolas Jean Prost (born 18 August 1981) is a French professional racing driver. He most recently raced in the FIA Formula E Championship before quitting the series. Previously, he was a longstanding racer in the FIA World Endurance Championship ...

and

Andrea Belicchi Andrea Belicchi (born 18 December 1976) is an Italian professional racing driver. He has competed in such series as the Porsche Supercup, Le Mans Series and FIA World Endurance Championship. He won the Russian Formula Three Championship in 2002 ...

Jean-Christophe Boullion Jean-Christophe Joël Louis "Jules" Boullion (born 27 December 1969) is a French former racing driver. He won the 1994 International Formula 3000 Championship with DAMS, took two Le Mans Series titles with the Pescarolo Sport outfit in 2005 and ...

will again spearhead the Rebellion Racing attack.

24 Hours of Le Mans

At the

2011 24 Hours of Le Mans The 79th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''79e 24 Heures du Mans'') was a 24-hour Endurance racing (motorsport), automobile endurance race for 56 teams of three drivers in Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and LM GTE, Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) ...

, the no. 12 car of Nico Prost/Neel Jani/

Jeroen Bleekemolen Jeroen Pascal Bleekemolen (born 23 October 1981 in Heemstede) is a Dutch professional Auto racing, racing driver. In the Chrysler Viper GTS-R he drove in the FIA GT Championship, with great success. He competed in the German Formula Three Champi ...

qualified 8th and finished 6th overall. It was the first gasoline finisher. The no. 13 car of Andrea Belicchi/Jean-Christophe Boullion and Guy Smith retired after 190 laps.

Le Mans Series

Rebellion won the LMP1 teams' title with 51 points, 1 point more than

Pescarolo Team Pescarolo Sport was a motorsport team based in Le Mans, France, and founded in February 2000 by French racing driver Henri Pescarolo and his friend and partner, French publisher François Granet. They raced in the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hou ...

, which came courtesy of Neel Jani's pole position.

Intercontinental Le Mans Cup

In the season finale in

Zhuhai Zhuhai; Yale romanization of Cantonese, Yale: ''Jyūhói''; Chinese postal romanization, also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern ...

, 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 of

Allan McNish Allan McNish (born 29 December 1969) is a British former racing driver, commentator, and journalist from Scotland. He is a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, most recently in 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans, 2013, as well as a three-time wi ...

's Audi R18, to overhaul the

OAK Racing OAK Racing is an Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing team specialising in sports prototypes based in Le Mans, France. In 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans, 2013 it won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in Le Mans Prototype, LMP2 class and the 2013 FIA ...

OAK-Pescarolo driven by Alexandre Premat,

Olivier Pla Olivier Pla (born 21 October 1981) is a French racing driver who competed in the Asian Le Mans Series for AF Corse. Career French Formula Campus and Formula Three Born in Toulouse, Pla started his career in 2000 in French Formula Campus befor ...

and

Jacques Nicolet Jacques Nicolet (born 5 April 1956 in Gigondas) is a French businessman and racing driver. He is the chairman of the Supervisory Board for Altarea SCA, a French Real estate investing, real estate investment and development company, which he co-f ...

for fourth position and 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.

2012 season

World Endurance Championship

On 1 February 2012, it was announced that German driver

Nick Heidfeld Nick Lars Heidfeld (; born 10 May 1977) is a German former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Born and raised in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Heidfeld began competitive kart racing aged 11. He progressed to Formu ...

would drive a Rebellion Lola-Toyota in select rounds of the

. Heidfeld will share the wheel of the Anglo-Swiss squad's No. 12 LMP1 entry with

and

at the Twelve Hours of Sebring, Six Hours of Spa and 24 Hours of Le Mans. He completes Rebellion's lineup, with

having been announced on 31 January as the third driver in the No. 13 Lola-Toyota with

and

Harold Primat Harold Primat (born 12 June 1975) is a French-born Swiss racing driver who previously competed in the Blancpain Endurance Series and other long-distance events such as the Bathurst 12 Hour and Nurburgring 24 Hours. Early career The nephew of ...

Petit Le Mans

Rebellion Racing entered the

2012 Petit Le Mans The 15th Annual Petit Le Mans was an endurance racing (motorsport), endurance auto race held at the Road Atlanta circuit in Braselton, Georgia on October 20, 2012. The race served as the final round of both the 2012 American Le Mans Series seas ...

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.

2013 season

Rebellion Racing participated in both the

2013 FIA World Endurance Championship season The 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship season was the second season of the FIA World Endurance Championship auto racing series, co-organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). T ...

and

2013 American Le Mans Series season The 2013 American Le Mans Series was the fifteenth and final season of the International Motor Sports Association GT Championship being labeled as the American Le Mans Series, before merging up with the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series in 2014. ...

. 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. Rebellion Racing took their second consecutive overall victory at Petit Le Mans, after Muscle Milk Pickett Racing again retired halfway through the race.

2014 season

On 8 June 2013, Rebellion confirmed they have entered a partnership with

Oreca ORECA (Organisation Exploitation Compétition Automobiles) is a French auto racing, racing team and race car constructor, founded in 1973 and run by Hugues de Chaunac, former team manager of F1 team Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives, AGS. Or ...

to design and build their own LMP1 car, the Rebellion R-One. The car debuted at the 2014 Spa 6 Hours in the 2014

and continues to use Toyota engines.R-ONE: Rebellion Racing to build an LMP1 car in partnership with Oreca
News & Media – Rebellion News. 8 June 2013.

2015 season

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 from

Advanced Engine Research Advanced Engine Research, Ltd. (commonly known by the abbreviation AER) is an auto racing engine manufacturer based in Basildon, Essex, England. Established in 1997, AER has developed winning engines for a number of high-profile international ra ...

. Rebellion Racing will use AER P60 V6 GDI twin-turbocharged power units. On 25 March 2015, it was announced that

Alexandre Imperatori Alexandre Emmanuel Imperatori (born 19 April 1987 in Châtel-Saint-Denis) is a Switzerland, Swiss racing driver who lives in Shanghai, China. Career Karting Imperatori started kart racing at the age of four in Spain. He raced karting in Spai ...

and

Daniel Abt Daniel Johannes Abt (born 3 December 1992) is a German former racing driver. He is most notable for competing and winning races in Formula E with the Audi Sport ABT team. Previously, Abt raced in German Formula Three, GP3, and GP2, as well as ...

had signed up with the team to pilot the squad's second car alongside

Dominik Kraihamer Dominik Kraihamer (born 29 November 1989 in Oberndorf) is an Austrian racing driver, who competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for ByKolles Racing Team. Career Kraihamer's racing career began in 2004 in karting, where he found succe ...

2016 season

The Rebellion R-One LMP1 cars continued to be powered by AER P60 V6 GDI twin-turbo engines from

while also using

Dunlop Tyres Dunlop Tyres is a brand of tyres which is managed by different companies around the world. It was founded by pneumatic tyre pioneer John Boyd Dunlop in Belfast, Ireland, in 1888. The brand is operated by Goodyear in North America (passen ...

after previously using

Michelin Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...

tyres. Their driver line-up would be

and Nelson Piquet Jr. with

Mathias Beche Mathias Beche Aussel (born 28 June 1986 in Geneva) is a Swiss-French professional racing driver who currently competes in the European Le Mans Series for Richard Mille by TDS. He is a former ELMS champion in the LMP2 class, as well as an LMP1-L ...

in round 4 in the #12 entry car. The #13 entry car's drivers would be

and

Mathéo Tuscher Mathéo Tuscher (born 12 December 1996 in Noville) is a Swiss- French former professional racing driver. Career Karting Tuscher began karting in 2004 and raced primarily in his native Switzerland for the majority of his career, winning Swis ...

2017 season

After a four-year hiatus, Rebellion Racing participated in the

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (I ...

which started at the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Flo ...

in January. The team also decided to switch to the LMP2-class in the

2017 FIA World Endurance Championship The 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship was the sixth season of the FIA World Endurance Championship, an auto racing series co-organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The s ...

. The team was renamed Vaillante Rebellion, following a partnership with Editions Graton, the publishers of the French comic

Vaillante ''Michel Vaillant'' is a French car racing comics series created in 1957 by French cartoonist Jean Graton and published originally by Le Lombard. Later, Graton published the albums by himself when he founded Graton éditeur in 1982. Michel Vail ...

2018–2019 season

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.

2019–2020 season

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.

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Le Mans Series results

References

External links

{{commons category
Official website
Swiss auto racing teams 24 Hours of Le Mans teams European Le Mans Series teams FIA World Endurance Championship teams American Le Mans Series teams WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams Dakar rally racing teams Auto racing teams established in 2010