Rebellion announces 2019/20 World Endurance LMP1 driver line-up

The team's solo Gibson-powered R-13 will be shared by Gustavo Menezes, Bruno Senna and newcomer Norman Nato.

Rebellion had also run ex-Formula 1 racer and IMSA SportsCar champion Felipe Nasr and Nathanael Berthon at last month's pre-season 'prologue' test.

Berthon ostensibly had a deal in place for the new season.

But it is understood the contractual situation was complicated by Rebellion's decision to downsize from two cars to one car for the 2019/20 campaign.

Rebellion CEO Calim Bouhadra had previously told Autosport that a decision on the race line-up would be based on performance at the test and how well the drivers gelled with each other, as well as budgetary concerns.

While Menezes and Senna both raced for Rebellion during the 2018/19 season, Nato is a relative newcomer to endurance racing - having competed in Formula 2 as recently as 2017.

He made his first foray into prototypes with the Racing Engineering LMP2 team in the European Le Mans Series in 2018.

While he has not had a full-time ride in 2019, he has made LMP2 cameos in both the ELMS with G-Drive Racing and the WEC with TDS Racing.

Team owner Alexandre Pesci said in a team statement that Nato had "surprised" Rebellion with his test performance.

Rebellion, which lodged two entries for the 2019/20 WEC season and ran two cars at the Barcelona test, has expressed a desire to run both of its R-13s in next year's Le Mans 24 Hours.

Its sole R-13 will be one of five LMP1s on the grid for the season opener at Silverstone on September 1, alongside two Ginettas and two Toyotas.