Prost set for eighth season with Rebellion
Nicolas Prost will undertake an eighth consecutive season with the Rebellion Racing team in the WEC, Motorsport.com has learned.
#12 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-One: Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld, Mathias Beche
XPB Images
The son of quadruple F1 world champion Alain Prost will take part in a similar campaign to last season, when he dovetailed Formula E championship commitments with his role at Rebellion in the WEC.
Prost made his debut for Rebellion, which was previously known as Speedy Racing team Sebah, at the Barcelona Le Mans Series race in 2009.
"Yes, the plan this year is to keep exactly the same programme – Formula E with Renault eDams and WEC with Rebellion," Prost told Motorsport.com
"Although I really hope we can get closer to the factories, it's not going to be easy. The gap is very big, and the regulations make it very hard to get closer.
"Rebellion is a fantastic team, but if the works teams already have an advantage, it's difficult – and it's not a small advantage they have, especially with four-wheel drive," continued Prost.
"If you give us more power, we would not be able to use it. When you see how much progress the factories make, it's going to be hard to get any closer."
Two Rebellion R-One's for 2016 FIA WEC
The deadline for applications to be received for the 2016 FIA WEC, which includes the Le Mans 24 Hours, was yesterday.
Rebellion Racing team boss Bart Hayden has confirmed to Motorsport.com that two Rebellion R-One cars have been registered for entries, again with the AER P60 V6 GDI twin-turbocharged LMP-1 engine.
"We have submitted two cars for the full FIA WEC and will confirm two of our 2016 drivers next week," Hayden said.
"We will continue to use the AER engine and as opposed to 2015 we will be at the Prologue (official test) in March.
Rebellion Racing took both the drivers' and teams' LMP1 privateer titles in 2015, with Prost and teammate Mathias Beche taking the silverware after securing two class wins.
The season though was not without frustration as a succession of reliability problems centred on the AER twin-turbo.
"We want to improve reliability this season, of course we do," stated Hayden.
"Last season it was a new installation to our chassis and while we achieved our target of taking the titles there was still a lot of room for improvement on the reliability aspect. AER is working hard on addressing the issues that came up in 2015 and together we will make the necessary steps forward."
Additional reporting by Jamie Klein
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