Rebellion Confirms It Won’t Enter Bahrain Season Finale

Rebellion Racing will not contest the FIA World Endurance Championship season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain, the company’s CEO Calim Bouhadra has confirmed.

The Swiss team contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the final time last weekend but after the race Bouhadra told Sportscar365 that nothing was decided in terms of its presence at the final round of the 2019-20 season in November.

He has since confirmed on Tuesday that the team will “100 percent” not be competing against Toyota Gazoo Racing in Bahrain, meaning that Le Mans was the team’s final appearance in the WEC.

It’s understood that the decision was taken due to Rebellion’s position in the points standings after Le Mans and for the purpose of saving costs on a fly-away event.

Gustavo Menezes, Bruno Senna and Norman Nato now have 145 points after finishing second in the 24-hour WEC round, leaving them 30 points adrift of Le Mans winners and new championship leaders Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley.

To clinch the drivers’ title, the Rebellion trio would need to win and rely on the No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid finishing no higher than seventh in the combined prototype classification, or eighth if it takes pole.

It would also need the No. 7 Toyota of Jose Maria Lopez, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi to encounter trouble and lose several overall positions.

The 8 Hours of Bahrain currently set to attract a two-car LMP1 entry with only Toyota involved.

A season finale entry for Team LNT, which ran a pair of Ginetta G60-LT-P1 AERs in the first four rounds of the 2019-20 campaign, has long been off the cards.

Rebellion is not continuing in the WEC next season, with its ORECA-built LMP1 chassis going to Signatech Alpine for the French team’s graduation to the top prototype class.