There are a couple of interesting changes to the APR Rebellion Racing effort for the 2018 European Le Mans Series which gets underway in two weeks time at Paul Ricard Circuit.

The first is a switch in drivers, Rebellion Racing’s Thomas Laurent is replaced by fellow 2018 LMP1 man Gustavo Menezes in the Algarve Pro racing run ORECA 07 Gibson.

The WEC LMP2 title winning American joins the previously announced Harrison Newey and Ryan Cullen for the LMS, this car not an entrant for the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours.

DSC confirmed some days ago that another key change is that the car that powers the effort is no longer the planned 2017 Rebellion chassis, the team instead now fielding an ex Manor WEC ORECA.

DSC approached Algarve Pro for confirmation but there was a polite ‘decline to comment’ in response from the never normally that shy Stewart Cox!

Despite that key change the team will retain the planned title, and the statement today confirming Menezes’ new role was issued by Rebellion Racing:

Calim Bouhadra: “Gustavo is an excellent driver, he proved it for several years now. We are delighted to be able to join him to the ELMS program. We have great ambitions for Thomas and we wanted to focus his involvement on the World Endurance Championship with a strong desire for success for his first season in the LMP1 category.

We would have liked to have more REBELLION drivers to APR REBELLION Racing but despite all our efforts, the financial constraints prevented it. We are still looking forward to starting the FIA WEC Prologue and the ELMS Test days in the coming days!”

Gustavo Menezes: “I am extremely excited to be joining APR-REBELLION for the 2018 ELMS season. It is a championship I’ve been trying to get into for quite a while as it perfectly aligns alongside FIA WEC. It really came as a surprise to me when the phone rang and I have never said let’s do this so fast.

I would like to thank everyone at Algarve and at REBELLION for making this happen and I truly am excited to get on the track now more than ever. I think together with Harrison who comes from a similar background as me and Ryan who also comes from a long junior Motorsports career, we have a very good chance to be fighting at the front every race weekend.

The biggest bonus is extending my 2018 calendar from 5 races to 11. Up next we have the FIA WEC Prologue and then immediately after the ELMS one, so I’m looking forward to seeing everyone out there and working with the boys!”