Le Mans racer Ferdinand Habsburg’s fan-focused Rebel Team movement goes from strength to strength

Rebel Team made its public race debut in the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hours on 10-11 June, its No31 Team WRT Oreca-Gibson WEC LMP2 car finishing fifth in the LMP2 class and 13th overall, out of a starting field of more than 60 cars. But Rebel Team is much more than just a race team, for it now plans to become a large, popular, positive and democratising influence on global motorsport.

Ferdinand Habsburg (WEC LMP2 Driver, Team WRT; Founding Visionary, Rebel Team) said:

‘Who are the most important people in motorsport? Well, lots of people, obviously, but the two most important groups are the drivers and the fans. And the experience for both groups isn’t what it should be.

‘I’m a lucky guy. I’m a professional racing driver who hasn’t had to struggle like crazy to get where I wanted to get to in my career in the way that many drivers do. Their problem is almost always funding - or the lack of it - because young drivers almost always have to pay big money for their race drives, and very few of them are lucky enough to have family or backers with pockets deep enough. As a result, many seriously talented young drivers have no option other than to give up. I’ve seen it many times. It’s very sad.

‘Motorsport should also look after its fans far better than it does currently. Fans are rarely offered the opportunity to get close to the action, to spend time with the teams, or to hang out with the drivers. That needs to change, too.

‘That’s where Rebel Team comes in. Rebel Team has been founded to make racing more feasible for drivers who come from average-income families, and for fans everywhere. We have big ambitions. We want to create the largest movement in global motorsport, populated by fans who become members and drivers who want to make those members’ experiences of following the sport we all love as brilliant as possible. So if you’re driver, or a fan, and you’re reading these words, right now, you can get involved with Rebel Team. You can become a Rebel, as we call ourselves.

‘Rebel Team will help fund young drivers’ careers, and we’ll offer our members unparalleled access and real influence. If you join Rebel Team, you’ll not only get to meet us, but you’ll also get to make important decisions about how we run things. Please join us - and help us create a better way to go racing.’

Merv Leslie (Managing Director, Rebel Team) said:

‘It’s not often that something truly special and innovative comes along in as well established a global sport as motor racing, but that’s exactly what Rebel Team is. We’ll make sustainable racing careers feasible for drivers who don’t have wealthy backers, and at the same time we’ll take the fans to the very centre of the action. Those two ambitions should be first and foremost for everyone in motorsport, yet for some reason they appear to be of secondary importance to many racing stakeholders.

‘But the good news is that it’s already happening. Rebel Team’s membership is already growing fast, and it’s a joy to see an increasing level of camaraderie unfolding day by day. The recent Le Mans 24 Hours was a hive of activity for us, for example. A number of Rebel Team members who were present at the race were involved in a real and dynamic way, not only provided with the necessary passes to gain access to the centre of the action but also asked to make a serious contribution to our race operation; and their input was brilliant.

‘Rebel Team members who weren’t at the race were very involved, too. We provided them with up-to-date info, and they then built on that info with one another. Our Discord channel was super-busy. We’re now set up to offer Rebel Team members real-time race data in the form of dynamic circuit and gap maps, stint analysis, and more soon. Between races we’re going to develop exciting fan-focused features and info-streams, too. ‘We’re also rolling out a unique voting system, via which next month Rebel Team members will actually decide with us what series we’ll be racing in next year - either ELMS [European Le Mans Series], WEC [World Endurance Championship] LMP2 or F3 [Formula Three] - and after that Rebel Team members will be able to vote on car liveries for 2024 and even driver selection for 2024, too.

‘At the moment Rebel Team races in WEC LMP2 only, but within a couple of years we intend to be racing in multiple series, all of them run along the same fan-focused democratic lines. Our ambitions are big: together with our Rebel Team members, who’ll be involved all the way, we want to take a young up-and-coming driver all the way through the feeder series to F1 [Formula One], and our Rebel Team members will be fully engaged in that journey - deciding on and having input on driver selection and driver development - from the very start.

‘Our current Rebel Team membership includes Rebels from across Europe, America and Asia, and is 50:50 male:female. We’re seeing the highest engagement levels from our female members. Everyone is welcome.

‘The founding visionary behind Rebel Team is Ferdinand Habsburg. He’s a great driver - 2021 WEC LMP2 champion, including a class win that year at the famous Le Mans 24 Hours race, and 2022 ELMS LMP2 champion. But he’s also that rare thing: a genuinely innovative thinker.

‘Together, with the help of our Rebel Team members, we intend to democratise racing and put the fans in the driving seat. We want our members - Rebels as we call them - to be the people who make real decisions about important matters.