[WEC] Rebellion Racing

[fefe]

Originally Posted by rich07

Dodo?

Dominik Kraihamer, he is called "Dodo" ( I know dodo also is a bird..lol ;-))

[Deleted]

Not the only Dodo we've seen this year, if you followed Comedy Central's insane 'Another Period' this summer

[fefe]

Speaking about the trolls...driver change in car #13 , Daniel Abt out, Matheo Tuscher in for the remaining races. endurance-info.com

[rich07]

Originally Posted by fefe

Dominik Kraihamer, he is called "Dodo" ( I know dodo also is a bird..lol ;-))

thanks for explaining that.

Originally Posted by fefe

Speaking about the trolls...driver change in car #13 , Daniel Abt out, Matheo Tuscher in for the remaining races. endurance-info.com

And yet another open wheel drive steps into an LMP1. Never heard of him tbh.

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by rich07

And yet another open wheel drive steps into an LMP1. Never heard of him tbh.

He's an 18yo Swiss driver.
Spent 2014 and 2015 in GP3, with not much in the way of success.
One or two podiums.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

He's an 18yo Swiss driver.
Spent 2014 and 2015 in GP3, with not much in the way of success.
One or two podiums.

Yeah that's what I got out of Wikipedia

Hope he does well in the transition.

[isynge]

Originally Posted by fefe

Speaking about the trolls...driver change in car #13 , Daniel Abt out, Matheo Tuscher in for the remaining races. endurance-info.com

Judging by some of the tweets from Dominic Kraihamer and Daniel Abt one gets a certain impression that this latest development may not have been entirely amicable...

[fefe]

Originally Posted by isynge

Judging by some of the tweets from Dominic Kraihamer and Daniel Abt one gets a certain impression that this latest development may not have been entirely amicable...

What did they tweet ?

It's strange in my opinion that a driver can break a contract in the ongoing season, isn´t it ?
I'm sure Daniel Abt was full aware of he would drive in Formula E, as far as I know it´s his fathers team.

[isynge]

Originally Posted by fefe

What did they tweet ?

It's strange in my opinion that a driver can break a contract in the ongoing season, isn´t it ?
I'm sure Daniel Abt was full aware of he would drive in Formula E, as far as I know it´s his fathers team.

Here you go
https://twitter.com/DodoKraihamer/st...02555297234944
https://twitter.com/Daniel_Abt/statu...99928706646016
https://twitter.com/Daniel_Abt/statu...07567918305281

So what's going on here?
Abt is 'summoned' to drive in Formula E and he'd rather be in WEC?
Abt would like to be in WEC but Rebellion have parachuted in Tushcer?

Initially my impression was that it was the latter, but now I'm not so sure.

Curious either way.

[fefe]

Originally Posted by isynge

Here you go
https://twitter.com/DodoKraihamer/st...02555297234944
https://twitter.com/Daniel_Abt/statu...99928706646016
https://twitter.com/Daniel_Abt/statu...07567918305281

So what's going on here?
Abt is 'summoned' to drive in Formula E and he'd rather be in WEC?
Abt would like to be in WEC but Rebellion have parachuted in Tushcer?

Initially my impression was that it was the latter, but now I'm not so sure.

Curious either way.

I wonder too what´s going on ? I think you are right about Rebellion´s because I´ve read here (rumors) for several months ago that Rebellions was interested in Tuscher and Gary Hirsch.

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by fefe

I wonder too what´s going on ? I think you are right about Rebellion´s because I´ve read here (rumors) for several months ago that Rebellions was interested in Tuscher and Gary Hirsch.

Also interesting in that is that the person to make way could be Heidfeld.

[fefe]

Originally Posted by Hawkwood

Also interesting in that is that the person to make way could be Heidfeld.

Nick will do 6h Bahrain ( the final WEC race this season) and then quit in Rebellions/WEC.

[Juntos]

They say it grows so cold up in Switzerland in winter that a man’s laughter freezes in his throat and chokes him to death. Matteo Tuscher and Gary Hirsch are definitely not drivers for a LMP1 premier outfit. They are just so far gone that I think they need an intervention.

[chernaudi]

When Rebellion were at their height, they had Lola building their cars, Toyota/TMG selling them engines, and focused on having a mostly professional driver line up.

But since 2013, Lola as we knew it went out of business, TMG killed their customer engine deal (at the end of the '14 WEC season), and Rebellion had to go their own way by having to turn to Oreca (who are busy with customer car programs of their own) for their cars and AER (who've had a spotty record for engine performance, namely reliability) in recent years. The cost of all of this also means that one car is heavily staffed by pay drivers or drivers who bring sponsor money.

[Deleted]

They had started on getting pay drivers for #13 as early as the start of 2012, you know people like Harold Primat. So before Lola started collapsing.

For 2014 they were gonna need brand new chassis regardless of whether Lola had still existed or not, and as for Toyota switch, it was mediocre and to my eyes largely unsupported anyway.

[chernaudi]

As far as privateer teams went, those things were what made Rebellion able to pick up the torch after Pescarolo shut down his team (again). Pescarolo may've done things with his own cars and with no pay drivers on an insanely small budget, but he basically had to do that with one of his teams to get on the grid at LM in '12. Also having to change out so much stuff due to regulations changes (mostly engine downsizing, with the 5.0/5.5 Judd V10s no longer being legal and the 3.4 Judd V8 basically being a piece of junk in '12) is just an exhibit of too many rules changes too fast. IMO, we should be happy that there's even private teams in LMP1 right now.

And even Audi and Porsche are asking for an extension on the current rules as far as engine regs and such until at least the end of 2017, let alone Toyota. And even TMG have a WEC budget that's massively bigger than Rebellion has ever had.

Even when Rebellion were willing to have one pay driver (non-platinum) for their lower ranked car, it was at least often able to keep up it's end of the deal and it probably wasn't a necessity. Now it is and Rebellion are having to milk it for the #13 now and last year, too, and they're for sure not platinum ranking material, and even gold ranking is pushing it.

And at least when Lola was around, Rebellion were able to get a decent car and TMG were selling them decent engines. Not what the factory team was getting, obviously, in terms of updates, but way better than alternatives from Judd, Zytek and AER. When Lola went under and was sold off, they lost easy access to a good customer car or even a way to update their old Lolas to conform to the post 2013 regs.

Instead, they now have a car from Oreca, which Oreca seem to be more concerned about the LMP2 car is spawned off than the Rebellion LMP1 cars, and an AER engine that though seemingly powerful (compared to the lame hackjob that Toyota did to the old 3.4 air restrictor V8 to adapt it to the fuel consumption regs), it's no where near as reliable, and they (as well as Kolles) probably have to de-tune the engines to make them last without changing them or risking huge penalties for having to change too many engines this year.

Rebellion might be wishing for the days of 2012-13 again, and for the ACO/FIA to leave most of the rules alone for a couple more years. Or, to allow all pro driver line ups in LMP2.

[Deleted]

There's no incentive to run all pro squads when you have no direct competition, unlike Rebellion had in 2010-2012 and before in Speedy Sebah days. Waste of money. It's a perfectly acceptable solution to have one good car, and one meh pay car right now. 2017 will show whether or not my estimate is correct on that

[fefe]

We´ll see what line-up it will be next season if they still run car #13 (you can´t be 100% sure of anything nowadays as it seems)
I guess Daniel Abt did run out of fundings or was sacked because Rebellion´s wanted to give the chance to Mathéo Tuscher the 2 last races of this season and if he is doing well perhaps they sign the youngster for 2016 ?

So far he is doing good for his first ever run in a LMP car.
1:52.373 Best lap FP1.
Tuscher best lap FP2 - 1:50.790

[knighty]

I think the recent spate of engine niggles from AER is NOT an inherent design issue or flaw.....to me this appears to be a simple mapping & calibration issue between the dyno ambient conditions and the actual track ambient conditions, combined with a poor choice of spark-plug temperature ratings, which is quite simply linked to the porcelain electrode length, whereby they are probably using spark plugs that are running too hot, with a long electrode....... also in the mix is the new fuel flow regs which will force the engines to be run extremely lean on fuel, therefore the risk of detonation (pre-ignition) is even higher.....I can think of no other issues related to why spark plugs would be burning out at such a rate......really its very easily fixed via a cooler running spark plug and being a tad more conservative on the engine fuel mapping, I will be quite surprised to see a repeat of these issues......time will tell I guess, AER are not stupid, but they have been known to push their luck way too far with things like excessively light and flimsy engines, then they never did it again!...... but fair credit to them for pushing the envelope, am sure they will sell more of these twin-turbo V6 LMP1 customer motors in 2016 and onwards, its a decent piece of kit in my eyes.

[chernaudi]

I'm sure that the AER engine will be pretty good once they iron out the bugs, but IMO it's still a bit discouraging that the engine's over a year old now and is still having odd glitches and issues.

[Deleted]

By what I read it seems the Swiss had pretty clumsy day again in China. In both cars. But they clinched the series sub trophy class mini endurance privateer challenge whatever award so I guess it was okay in the end. Not that there ever was any doubt of that, or that anyone noticed?

Regardless

2015 - 1st in WEC Sub
2014 - 1st in WEC Sub (+honorable 4th at LM)
2013 - 1st in WEC Sub and 1st at PLM
2012 - 1st in WEC Sub and 1st at PLM (+honorable 4th at LM)
2011 - 1st in LMS and 3rd in ILMC OVERALL
2010 - 3rd in LMS
2009 - (S-Sebah) - 2nd in LMS P2 and 2nd at LM P2

[chernaudi]

If Rebellion do tire of the so far problematic AER V6, they can always go back to running Judd V10s--AIM/EDL are offering the Judd/AIM V10 to customers in LMP1L next season.

[fefe]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

If Rebellion do tire of the so far problematic AER V6, they can always go back to running Judd V10s--AIM/EDL are offering the Judd/AIM V10 to customers in LMP1L next season.

Copy that. Do you have a source ? EDIT: I found it ! https://www.engdev.com/aim-lmp1-engine/

[knighty]

Originally Posted by fefe

Copy that. Do you have a source ? EDIT: I found it ! https://www.engdev.com/aim-lmp1-engine/

Well its only a matter of time before someone went the 5.5L normally aspirated route, and for reasons of increased fuel economy you want the biggest possible capacity in order to keep the RPM as low as possible for greatly reduced frictional losses, if I was a privateer LMP1 getting ready for 2016 I would have knocked on Judds door about 6 months ago, hence I suspect this is already very old news that has just been made public.

I just cant understand why both Judd and Zytek both proposed a 4.4 V8 last year, it had disaster written all over it, and it seems everyone realized it hence none were sold.

The 5.5 V10 Judd its a proven solution and can go the distance, probably the best ever LMP1 privateer engine of years gone by, I will be highly surprised if they are not on the WEC grid in 2016.......although I very much doubt that Rebellion will make the jump as they have just performed a major re-work for the AER V6 and are still developing.......Although I can imagine the likes of Dallara, Ligier, Oreca, Strakka and so on probably already have the 3D CAD models of the 5.5 litre V10 in their potential LMP1 chassis designs to offer any prospective new LMP1 privateer customers either engine option.

[Mike E]

This V10 story is very exciting news. I really hope someone uses this motor.