WEC: Rebellion cuts back to single car

Top World Endurance Championship LMP1 privateer Rebellion Racing is trimming its assault on the series to one car for the remainder of the season. The Anglo-Swiss team has taken the decision to slim down from two cars in order to divert resources to development of its AER-engined R-One contender to maximize new regulations in place for privateers next year.

Rebellion will now just run its #13 entry for Alex Imperatori, Dominik Kraihamer and Matheo Tuscher in the remaining five flyaway rounds, starting at Mexico City on September 3.

Rebellion team manager Bart Hayden said: "The level of competition in LMP1 is being taken to ever greater heights by the manufacturer entrants, so to improve our own competitiveness in the category, we feel the need to invest more time and resources into updating the Rebellion R-One cars ready for the 2017 season.

"As a small private team with limited resources, we have decided to focus on racing one car rather than two in the remaining FIA WEC events and this will allow us to put more effort into updating the cars for 2017."

The revised regulations allow for larger diveplanes at the front, an increase in the width and chord of the rear wing, and a lower minimum weight of 830kg.

The changes, which have been devised in an attempt to narrow the gap between the privateer P1s and the hybrid factory cars, are a precursor to the introduction of a rear drag reduction system for 2018.

Hayden said that Rebellion had decided to run the #13 car, which lies second in the privateer points to the sister car, because it is closer to the rival ByKolles entry and "makes the fight for the championship a bigger challenge."

Originally on Autosport.com