Rebellion Racing has announced their full driver line-up for the 2017 season, today.
Julien Canal will join Nico Prost and Bruno Senna in car #12 in the teams new ORECA 07 Gibson LMP2 car while David Heinemeier Hansson joins Nelson Piquet Jr. and Mathias Beche in #13.
Canal won the GTE-Am Championship in FIA WEC for Larbre Competition in 2012 and followed up with a LMP2 Championship for G-Drive Racing in 2015. In 2016 he took a step down to the European Le Mans Series with Greaves Motorsport. He has that impressive record to take three class wins in a row between 2010 and 2012 at Le Mans with Larbre Competition.
Heinemeier Hansson is starting his 5th FIA WEC season. After doing various kind of GT classes, he went into LMP2 in ALMS in 2012, where he instantly finished 2nd in the Championship. The same year he got his debut at Le Mans, but didn’t have much luck there, however he still finished the race. One year later he stood on the Le Mans podium in 2nd position and did the same at the end of the year in the FIA WEC LMP2 Championship.
That was followed with a 2014 season with Young Driver Aston Martin Racing in GTE-Am, where he claimed both the title and the win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. That was followed by a troubled 2015 with Extreme Speed Motorsport in FIA WEC in LMP2, before he went for a Porsche in GTE-Am in 2016. That send him back on the podiums again, and took 3rd at Le Mans and finished 2nd in the drivers Championship in WEC.
Now his focus is back on LMP2 again, and with those two co-drivers it does look very promising for him. He is a very quick driver, and almost on level with the professional drivers, if everything runs smoothly.
But don’t count car number 12 with Prost, Senna and Canal out of the game either. So it’s not impossible to see two Rebellion Racing cars fighting at the top of LMP2.
But we will only get a better hint at that, by learning who the competition is on February 2nd, when ACO announce the FIA WEC and the 24 Hours of Le Mans entry lists.