REBELLION Racing and Toyota Motorsport GmbH are pleased to confirm their plans for a Le Mans Prototype LMP1 engine supply partnership.
The agreement will see two REBELLION Racing Lola LMP1 cars powered by Toyota engines, commencing with the 2011 season when REBELLION Racing will be the exclusive partner of Toyota Motorsport in LMP1.
Alexandre Pesci, Rebellion Racing Team Principal, said: “This agreement is the cornerstone of REBELLION's challenge for the forthcoming season. Toyota is an impressive and remarkable industrial giant, we are proud to have been selected by Toyota Motorsport as their partner in this project. It means a lot for our team to have secured their support in our efforts to target the victory.”
Bart Hayden, Rebellion Racing Team Manager, said: “We are delighted to become a partner of Toyota Motorsport and are excited about working alongside a company with a Formula 1 background and a rich history at Le Mans. We look forward to establishing a strong and long term relationship with them.”
Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Toyota Motorsport President, said: “Toyota Motorsport has recent experience of engine supply partnerships from our Formula 1 days so we are drawing on that to deliver a reliable and competitive engine. We are looking forward to working with REBELLION Racing on this exciting project and it was very pleasing to see this engine running in a car for the first time, particularly because the performance, as well as the reliability, was very encouraging.”
Martin Birrane, Executive Chairman of Lola Group, said: “Lola is delighted to be the 2011 LMP constructor of choice for Toyota Motorsport and REBELLION Racing. Supporting our customers at the very highest level has always been and will continue to be very important to Lola. We once again look forward to taking the challenge to the factory works teams next year.”
The partnership between REBELLION Racing and Toyota Motorsport started some weeks ago when, as the first result of combined work from Lola and Sebah Automotive, an interim Lola-Toyota was shaken down in early October at Snetterton in the UK.
At the end of October, REBELLION Racing and Toyota Motorsport engineers conducted an evaluation test programme at Portimao, Portugal and Monteblanco, Spain.
The Lola-Toyota test car achieved high mileage, providing valuable data and experience in terms of performance and reliability with the Toyota engine.
