Rebellion Confirms 2019-20 WEC Return

Photo: John Dagys

Rebellion Racing has confirmed it will return to the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship season with a planned two-car LMP1 effort with its Rebellion R13 Gibsons.

It comes amid paddock rumors indicating the Swiss squad could have been eyeing a sabbatical next season to prepare for the arrival of the new Hypercar format in 2020-21.

Speaking to Sportscar365, team manager Bart Hayden reaffirmed Rebellion’s commitment, at least for the short term.

“You’ll see two cars on the entry list, providing the Selection Committee accepts us,” he told Sportscar365. “We’ve put two entries in and we’re expecting to see two entries on the entry list.”

Hayden said driver lineups have yet to be determined, amid the departures of Neel Jani and Thomas Laurent, as well as the possibility of Andre Lotterer re-evaluating his commitments due to expected date clashes with the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.

All of the team’s drivers are subcontracted by parent company Rebellion, as is the case with team operations, which Hayden manages.

“We haven’t finalized the contracts with the drivers yet,” Hayden said. “Obviously we’ve got a number of drivers who are either changing their focus or have other contracts lined up, so at the moment on the driver side of things, we haven’t got anything to announce.

“It is quite tricky with the way the Super Season works, and also with some of our drivers doing the Formula E calendar.

“You’ve got two championships what you might call not common calendar formats and then you’ve got the regular championships that tend to go year-by-year. It’s an interesting mix.”

Rebellion Corporation CEO Calim Bouhadra previously told Endurance-Info that its 2019-20 program would only be confirmed after this weekend, amid rumored budget concerns within the operation.

ByKolles Could Opt for Partial-Season Effort

Fellow LMP1 competitor ByKolles Racing could opt for a partial-season WEC program next season, Sportscar365 has learned.

The German squad, which currently fields its ENSO CLM P1/01 Gibson in the top class, may not appear on the full-season 2019-20 entry list, which will be released by the ACO on Friday.

It’s understood the team is likely to focus on a selected-race program, pending single-event entry approvals by the FIA, with its current car alongside development of a Hypercar for the 2020/21 season.

It could leave as low as six full-season LMP1 entries, should neither of the Ginetta entry requests materialize.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John