Rebellion Racing, for four years the top privateer in international sports car racing, decided to take a huge step forward for 2014—the Swiss-based team contracted Oreca to design build a bespoke LMP1 coupe for 2014, the R-One.
Rebellion Racing and Oreca announced that the Wednesday that the project in on schedule; chassis molds are being constructed, parts suppliers have been chosen, and Rebellion driver Nicolas Prost and several Rebellion engineers visited the Oreca design offices at Signes, France, to test cockpit ergonomics and driver visibility.
“The design and build is going according to the plan that we set along with Rebellion Racing. We haven’t run into any issues during this period, which is always a crucial part of a new car’s build process,” said Christophe Guibbal, R-One design director for Oreca, in a company statement.
“It’s an exciting time: we had the chance to explore several different paths and now we’re looking forward to taking the next step.”
Construction and assembly of the monocoque is underway; most of the main pieces have been built. Engineers at Oreca continue to fine-tune the car’s aerodynamics and to improve every part of the car as the construction progresses.
Time for a Change
Rebellion has had great of success with its Lola-Toyotas, but changing regulations made those cars obsolete, while of all the factories, only Honda was willing to provide customer cars, and the terms weren’t clear by the time Rebellion had to decide on its 2014 plans.
Rebellion could have opted to run its aging Lolas in the FIA World Endurance Championship for one more season but the cars wouldn’t have been competitive. Rather than sit out a season, Rebellion management decided to commission a Rebellion LMP1 car in cooperation with Oreca Group, a constructor with several successful designs to its credit.
Oreca will build three R-One chassis, two to race and one as a spare. The cars should hit the track for initial testing sometime in March, in plenty of time for the official World Endurance Championship test days at Le Castellet circuit in France on March 28-29.
That will give the team ample time to make adjustments before shipping the cars to England for the first race weekend of the WEC season at Silverstone, April 18-20.
“We are pleased that the project is on schedule,” Rebellion manager Bart Hayden said in a team press statement.
“Our engineers are working closely with the project team at Oreca and the drivers are already involved in validating elements of the design, as witnessed by the interior ergonomics validation in the chassis mock-up.
“We are already making plans for the Rebellion Racing mechanics to be involved in the assembly of the cars in the new year and are targeting the first roll-out in the middle of March. It’s a tight schedule, but it is achievable and we are giving it our due focus.”
Driver Nicolas Prost said he was excited to be part of the design process of the car he would be driving in 2014. “Being part of the development of a new car is technically very interesting and it is enjoyable to input some personal views and experiences towards the design of some of the parts. On a more personal side, it is really nice to work again with Oreca with whom I raced my first 24 Heures du Mans in 2007 and before that in Formula Renault.”
An Ambitious Plan by an Ambitious Partnership
The R-One has some big shoes to fill. Rebellion’s Lola B11-60 and B12-60 coupes won the International Le Mans Cup privateer class in 2010, the WEC privateer cup in 2011 and 2012 and will again in 2013, was the best privateer in the 2013 Sebring 12 Hours, and won Petit Le Mans in 2012 and 2013.
With the merger of the Americans Le Mans Series and the Rolex Sports car series into the Tudor United SportsCar Series, some U.S. teams might end up competing with Rebellion in WEC, along with the teams which have been there since the beginning.
Rebellion’s successes have come through preparation and attention to detail as well as quick cars and fast drivers. Both rebellion and Oreca are confident they will find success with the new car.
As Oreca president, Hugues De Chaunac, commented when the project was announced, “Everyone at Oreca is very happy with this partnership with Rebellion Racing. They are a team who have proven their ability in running an LMP1 program and who are ambitious.
“This project fits perfectly with our developing constructor activities and we are motivated by the idea of doing so with a professional outfit. We share in the desire for a captivating challenge.”
