Nicolas Prost confirms Rebellion extension through 2014 - MotorSportsTalk

Rebellion Racing is losing one of its aces, Neel Jani, to Porsche’s factory FIA World Endurance Championship effort at the end of 2013. But the team confirmed late Tuesday it has locked up Nicolas Prost, son of four-time World Champion, Alain, through 2014.

The younger Prost joined the team in 2009 and counts the 2012 Petit Le Mans overall win among his victories with the Bart Hayden-led team. He co-drives with Jani and Nick Heidfeld at this weekend’s Petit Le Mans, the American Le Mans Series season finale, in the team’s Lola B12/60 Toyota.

“I’m very comfortable here and I am always involved in the development of the team,” Prost said in a team release. “We have grown together over the years and it feels like absolutely the right thing to stay with REBELLION Racing.The R-One project is really exciting and I am proud to have been associated with the project from the first meeting.”

The aforementioned R-One is a new-for-2014 LMP1 prototype the team is building for 2014 as part of new FIA/ACO P1 regulations, to race in the WEC. Rebellion has been the lone privateer survivor this year against factory efforts from Audi and Toyota, while the OAK, Pescarolo, Strakka and JRM teams have temporarily disbanded their P1 efforts over the last two years due to high costs and issues with equivalency balancing as petrol-powered cars against diesel and gasoline hybrids.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”