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Le Mans / ALMS
LE MANS: Q&A With Rebellion’s Bart Hayden
Rebellion Racing team manager discusses LMP1 Balance of Performance, Lola spares situation and outlook for the future...
Rebellion Racing will be looking to clinch the WEC LMP1 Privateers Championship in this weekend's Six Hours of Fuji. (Photo: LAT)
From leading the LMP1 privateer title race in the FIA WEC to lodging an entry for next weekend’s Petit Le Mans, Rebellion Racing has risen to become one of the top independent prototype teams in the world.
The Anglo-Swiss squad, led by team manager Bart Hayden, is on the brink of locking up the FIA Trophy for top Privateer LMP1 team in this weekend’s FIA WEC Six Hours of Fuji.
SPEED.com caught up with Hayden to get his thoughts on a wide array of topics, including the current Balance of Performance in LMP1, the team’s spare parts situation and their outlook into 2013 and beyond.
Note: An additional article exploring the team’s Petit Le Mans efforts will be published next week.
Q: There has been a lot of talk recently about the Balance of Performance in LMP1 between the factory cars and privateers. Is it true there’s been a push for the ACO/FIA to speed up the privateer cars?
HAYDEN: We've had a meeting with the ACO and FIA in Brazil and we said that since we're taking weight out of the car and giving our car a bigger restrictor to go to Atlanta, there's no real reason why we couldn't do the same for the cars running in the WEC.
But we didn't feel that it was appropriate for us to force that issue without the full agreement of the privateers. It would have a burden of change as well. The view from the other privateers is that they couldn't go as far as taking the 20 kgs out but they could perhaps match the restrictor.
We then asked how big of a difference is that going to make? We feel like we will still probably be having a race as privateers. Do we need to go through the heartache and hassle and the money to improve our lap times by half a second to still have the same race amongst ourselves?
Q: What do you suggest could be done to help close that performance gap?
HAYDEN: We feel that the burden of change should not be on the privateer. The burden of change should be on those that have the resources to handle it, which are the manufacturers.
In other words, slow them down, bring them to us, rather than trying to move us to them and try to get the balance closer for the new year.
Our cars [are nearly at] the absolute ceiling of where they could go. We recognize the investments Audi and Toyota make are huge in comparison to ourselves. So we don't expect to be within a tenth [of a second]. But we'd like to finish the race no more than one or two laps down and to have an outside chance and not a wing and a prayer chance.
Q: Given the situation with Lola, how are you dealing with spare parts?
HAYDEN: At the moment we can go directly to the suppliers and can purchase parts from them. So that's what we've been doing to keep this program alive through the season.
If we continue with these cars next year, which I think it would be the most likely scenario, it's a question of really identifying early what the likely part requirement will be for the season and getting those orders in early because all of those parts have long lead times.
The Anglo-Swiss squad, led by team manager Bart Hayden, is on the brink of locking up the FIA Trophy for top Privateer LMP1 team in this weekend’s FIA WEC Six Hours of Fuji.
SPEED.com caught up with Hayden to get his thoughts on a wide array of topics, including the current Balance of Performance in LMP1, the team’s spare parts situation and their outlook into 2013 and beyond.
Note: An additional article exploring the team’s Petit Le Mans efforts will be published next week.
Q: There has been a lot of talk recently about the Balance of Performance in LMP1 between the factory cars and privateers. Is it true there’s been a push for the ACO/FIA to speed up the privateer cars?
HAYDEN: We've had a meeting with the ACO and FIA in Brazil and we said that since we're taking weight out of the car and giving our car a bigger restrictor to go to Atlanta, there's no real reason why we couldn't do the same for the cars running in the WEC.
But we didn't feel that it was appropriate for us to force that issue without the full agreement of the privateers. It would have a burden of change as well. The view from the other privateers is that they couldn't go as far as taking the 20 kgs out but they could perhaps match the restrictor.
We then asked how big of a difference is that going to make? We feel like we will still probably be having a race as privateers. Do we need to go through the heartache and hassle and the money to improve our lap times by half a second to still have the same race amongst ourselves?
Q: What do you suggest could be done to help close that performance gap?
HAYDEN: We feel that the burden of change should not be on the privateer. The burden of change should be on those that have the resources to handle it, which are the manufacturers.
In other words, slow them down, bring them to us, rather than trying to move us to them and try to get the balance closer for the new year.
Our cars [are nearly at] the absolute ceiling of where they could go. We recognize the investments Audi and Toyota make are huge in comparison to ourselves. So we don't expect to be within a tenth [of a second]. But we'd like to finish the race no more than one or two laps down and to have an outside chance and not a wing and a prayer chance.
Q: Given the situation with Lola, how are you dealing with spare parts?
HAYDEN: At the moment we can go directly to the suppliers and can purchase parts from them. So that's what we've been doing to keep this program alive through the season.
If we continue with these cars next year, which I think it would be the most likely scenario, it's a question of really identifying early what the likely part requirement will be for the season and getting those orders in early because all of those parts have long lead times.
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