Interview
WEC Austin
Mid-summer interview with Rebellion Racing's Team Manager Bart Hayden
Bart Hayden: "There has to be a place for the privateers with non-hybrid cars."
Edited: Aug 7, 2014, 6:08 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
How will the recent changes in the FIA WEC EoT improve the pace of the Rebellion R-Ones ? The changes announced by the Endurance Committee following the 24 Hour of Le Mans will allow REBELLION Racing to take a further 10kg of ballast out of the R-One cars and to have a higher fuel usage allowance. These changes are small compared to the pre-Le Mans adjustments where we were able to take 40kg out of the cars. We saw an improvement in laptime at Le Mans of about 2 seconds following the adjustments there, but around the short “sprint” circuits a weight reduction of only 10kg will not make much difference.
Do you think these changes will make the pace of the LMP1-L closer to the LMP1-H cars ? "No."
Will the R-Ones will receive updates for the Austin round of the WEC or in the following races ? "REBELLION Racing are working with ORECA to bring some aerodynamic updates for the R-One cars to Austin. There won’t be any further major updates to the cars after that, just little tweaks and refinements to fine tune the performance."
From Austin you will have to face competition in the LMP1-L category with the debut of the Lotus LMP1, are you confident ? "You never really know how your cars will compare to a competitor’s car until they are both on the same track together at the same time. We have now had many hours of running with the R-Ones, so we are getting to know well how they work and where we can improve. The Lotus will have had only limited running, so that could be a disadvantage for them. We are confident in our ability to extract the maximum from our cars and the competition will provide an extra incentive to achieve that."
From the start of the season competition has so far been limited to an intra-team battle between the team's two cars, how will the arrival of the Lotus LMP1 from Austin change your race team strategy ? "It won’t really change it at all because we are not measuring ourselves only against the LMP1-L competitor, we are trying to race with the factory cars. Our target is to get the Rebellion R-One cars as close to the front of the race as possible, we are racing in the premier category because we want to have a chance to win the race outright, we are not thinking strongly about only being the best in LMP1-L, but more about making the cars as competitive as possible to increase the chance of taking the overall win one day."
How do you see the future of the LMP1-L category ? "It is good that Lotus is joining the LMP1-L category and we hope that more competitors will join as time goes on. The competition makes the races interesting and if the regulations can put the privateers into the same race at the front as the factory cars, that would be good for everyone. There has to be a place for the privateers with non-hybrid cars. The technology being used by the manufacturers to provide the hybrid power for their cars is quite exclusive and beyond the reach of a privateer team. We applaud the FIA / ACO for allowing the manufacturers the opportunity to develop those complex hybrid technologies, but the privateers must not be forgotten, we need assistance and if that support is forthcoming, the number of privateers that will compete in the races will increase."
Rebellion Racing
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Circuit of the Americas sets Lone Star Le Mans schedule
Next article Strakka Racing returns to WEC in Brazil
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Bart Hayden
Rebellion Racing launches their 2015 racing season at Le Mans
WEC
WEC
Rebellion Racing launches their 2015 racing season at Le Mans
Rebellion reveals 2015 WEC line-up
WEC
WEC
Rebellion reveals 2015 WEC line-up
Rebellion switches to AER engines, to miss opening WEC round of 2015
WEC
WEC
Rebellion switches to AER engines, to miss opening WEC round of 2015
More from
Rebellion Racing
Rebellion boss takes over Dumas' car after Dakar shakedown fire
Dakar
Dakar
Dakar
Rebellion boss takes over Dumas' car after Dakar shakedown fire
Toyota "surprised in two directions" by Rebellion pace
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
Toyota "surprised in two directions" by Rebellion pace
Rebellion has "no chance" of win unless Toyota slips up
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
Rebellion has "no chance" of win unless Toyota slips up
Latest news
Denny Hamlin proud of season despite another likely missed title
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
15 min
Denny Hamlin proud of season despite another likely missed title
Max Verstappen jokes about Daniel Ricciardo's Le Mans ambition: "He's a smart man picking me!"
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
51 min
Max Verstappen jokes about Daniel Ricciardo's Le Mans ambition: "He's a smart man picking me!"
Alex Albon dismisses Fernando Alonso criticism: 'F1 has no more pay drivers'
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
1 h
Alex Albon dismisses Fernando Alonso criticism: 'F1 has no more pay drivers'
How to watch NASCAR at Martinsville: Schedule, start time, entry list, TV
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
1 h
How to watch NASCAR at Martinsville: Schedule, start time, entry list, TV
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe