Dunlop has announced that it will return to the LMP1 category of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in 2016. Dunlop has been chosen by Rebellion Racing for the 2016 season including the Le Mans 24 Hours.
This decision brings open tyre competition to the LMP1 category for the first time since 2012, when Dunlop supplied tyres to the OAK team. Since then, Dunlop has focused on the LMP2 category in FIA WEC and has been chosen by the class winning team at Le Mans every year for the last five years.
Rebellion will race an upgraded version of their R-One LMP1-L car in 2016, entering two cars in the championship.
For the last four years, Rebellion Racing has been the top non-manufacturer team in the championship, winning the FIA WEC Endurance Trophy for Privateer LMP1 Teams.
During the 2015 FIA WEC season, the team won the Privateer LMP1 class four times and aims to build on this in 2016 with the support of their new tyre partner.
Bart Hayden, Rebellion Racing Team Manager: “We are delighted to welcome Dunlop as tyre partner of Rebellion Racing and are excited about working alongside a company with such a deep motorsport background and rich history at Le Mans. We look forward to establishing a strong and long term relationship with Dunlop. We saw in recent seasons that Dunlop have provided very competitive tyres to the LMP2 cars and we hope that this partnership will further improve the competitiveness of the Rebellion R-One LMP1 cars.