Rebellion retains Toyota engines for its LMP1 programme

Although Toyota recently announced it was returning to LMP1 with its own works team and a new hybrid car next year, team principal Alexandre Pesci said Rebellion was still stepping up its partnership with the Japanese firm's European motorsport arm.

"Rebellion Racing will remain the exclusive partner of Toyota Motorsport GmbH for the petrol 3.4 litre RV8KLM engine programme," he said.

"The partnership with TMG is now deeper and stronger. We had one of our cars in one of TMG's full-scale windtunnels a few weeks ago to gain a deeper understanding of the Lola-Toyota LMP1 car and to prepare for future aerodynamic developments.

"In 2012, TMG will supply Rebellion Racing an upgraded version of the RV8KLM engine on an exclusive basis for the second year in a row."

Pesci thinks Toyota's fully-fledged return could benefit Rebellion.

"The prospect of Toyota returning to Le Mans with a car of their own design is exciting for endurance racing," he said.

"The results that Rebellion Racing have been able to achieve in 2011 through our partnership with TMG have provided a platform upon which Toyota will be able to build in 2012.

"For ourselves too, we will benefit from the lessons learned through the first year of our partnership and some of the developments that we have planned for the future might be accelerated now that the works car will be present.

"The new Toyota car will be a petrol-hybrid and we expect that it will be at the leading edge of technology with a significant KERS capability, so it will be interesting to see if it can truly challenge the dominance that the diesel powered cars have had in recent years."

He added that Rebellion was content to remain among the independent teams rather than chasing a works involvement.

"At Rebellion Racing we are keen to retain our own identity and to focus our resources on building upon the results we have achieved to be the best privateer team in LMP1," said Pesci.