Vanwall Racing Team
The Vanwall Racing Team is an Austrian-German auto racing team based in Greding, Germany. The team currently fields the No. 4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 in the FIA World Endurance Championship. It was founded in 2000 by Romulus Kolles and his son Colin Kolles as Kolles Racing. Prior to 2023, the team was known as ByKolles Racing before being rebranded into the Vanwall Racing Team.[1]
 | |
| Founded | 2000 |
|---|---|
| Founder(s) | Romulus Kolles Colin Kolles |
| Former names | Kolles Racing Kodewa GmbH & Co. KG ByKolles Racing |
| Base | Greding, Germany |
| Team principal(s) | Colin Kolles Romulus Kolles |
| Current series | FIA World Endurance Championship |
| Former series | German Formula Three Championship Formula 3 Euro Series Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters European Le Mans Series |
| Current drivers |  Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri.svg.png.webp){kind=small} Jacques Villeneuve.svg.png.webp){kind=small} Esteban Muth (test and reserve driver) |
| Noted drivers |  Thomas Holzer Mirco Schultis Luca Moro Vitantonio Liuzzi Kevin Weeda Renger van der Zande James Rossiter |
| Website | VanwallRacing.com |
History
The company initially participated in German Formula 3 before moving to the F3 Euro Series from 2003 to 2005. Colin Kolles left the team to become director of the Jordan Grand Prix Formula One team at the start of the 2005 season, a position he held until 2009. With his son away, Romulus moved the team to the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series with Audi under the sponsorship title Futurecom TME. The Kolles team shifted their interest to sports car racing by participating in the Le Mans Series and later the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, again with customer Audi prototypes. Kolles returned to Formula One to helm the HRT F1 team in 2010, with Kodewa's workshop in Greding serving as a base of operations for the new team before HRT's new owners chose to release Kolles from the team and move their operations to Spain in 2012.
Kodewa participated in the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship with the backing of Lotus Cars under the title Lotus LMP2. In 2014 they lost their Lotus backing and rebranded as ByKolles Racing with a new LMP1 prototype, the CLM P1/01.[2]
In 2017 Robert Kubica was set to return to active racing again in the ByKolles car for the WEC season.[3] Eventually in April he withdrew from the team.[4]
Former Caterham F1 boss Manfredi Ravetto joined the ByKolles team in 2018.[5]
On 2 April 2022, ByKolles successfully completed the roll-out of its Vanwall Le Mans Hypercar, as the team prepares for entry in the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship.[6] The team acquired the rights to use the Vanwall name and officially rebranded to become the Vanwall Racing Team.[1] On 11 January 2023, their entry was accepted by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and the team will enter the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship in the Hypercar class with the Vanwall Vandervell 680, built to LMH specifications.[7]
The use of the Vanwall name is currently in question after ByKolles lost a EUIPO case over the trademark of the name. It is not known what will happen to the current project.[8]
Results
German Formula Three Championship results
| Year | Teamname | Car | Engine | Driver | Races | Points | Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | AIL Team Kolles Racing | Dallara F300 | Mugen-Honda | Elran Nijenhuis |
14 | 18 | 18th |
| Andreas Feichtner |
4 | 4 | 24th | ||||
 Peter Sundberg |
10 | 4 | 25th | ||||
| Marc Hynes |
2 | 0 | NC | ||||
| 2001 | Team Kolles Racing | Dallara F300 | Mugen-Honda | Pierre Kaffer |
20 | 156 | 4th |
 Kimmo Liimatainen |
20 | 25 | 16th | ||||
| 2002 | Team Kolles Racing | Dallara F302 | Mugen-Honda |  João Paulo de Oliveira |
14 | 16 | 12th |
| Charles Zwolsman Jr. |
10 | 8 | 15th | ||||
| Ross Zwolsman |
10 | 0 | 21st | ||||
 Sakon Yamamoto |
6 | 0 | 22nd | ||||
| Dallara F399 | Stefano Proetto |
14 | 0 | 30th |
Formula 3 Euro Series results
| Year | Teamname | Car | Engine | Driver | Races | Points | Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Kolles | Dallara F303 | Mercedes | Charles Zwolsman Jr. |
20 | 7 | 19th |
| Dallara F302 | Jamie Green |
6 | 6 | 20th | |||
| Jan Heylen |
14 | 0 | 28th | ||||
| 2004 | Team Kolles | Dallara F303 | Mercedes | Adrian Sutil |
18 | 9 | 17th |
| Maximilian Götz |
2 | 3 | 19th | ||||
| Dallara F302 | Tom Kimber-Smith |
20 | 2 | 20th | |||
| 2009 | Kolles & Heinz Union | Dallara F309 | Volkswagen | Robert Wickens |
4 | 0 | 22nd |
 Johan Jokinen |
18 | 0 | 24th | ||||
| Nick Tandy |
16 | 0 | 28th | ||||
| Carlo van Dam |
4 | 0 | 31st | ||||
| Edoardo Mortara |
2 | 0 | NC |
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results
| Year | Teamname | Car | Driver | Races | Points | Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Futurecom TME | Audi A4 DTM 2004 | Vanina Ickx |
10 | 0 | 19th |
| Jeroen Bleekemolen |
2 | 0 | 20th | |||
| Olivier Tielemans |
3 | 0 | 21st | |||
| Thed Björk |
2 | 0 | 22nd | |||
| Nicolas Kiesa |
3 | 0 | 23rd | |||
| 2007 | Futurecom TME | Audi A4 DTM 2005 | Adam Carroll |
5 | 0 | 18th |
| Markus Winkelhock |
5 | 0 | 19th | |||
| Vanina Ickx |
10 | 0 | 21st | |||
| 2008 | Futurecom TME | Audi A4 DTM 2006 | Christijan Albers |
11 | 0 | 19th |
| Katherine Legge |
11 | 0 | 21st | |||
| 2009 | Kolles Futurecom | Audi A4 DTM 2007 |  Tomáš Kostka |
10 | 0 | 17th |
| Christian Bakkerud |
9 | 0 | 19th | |||
| Johannes Seidlitz |
8 | 0 | 20th |
Le Mans Series results
| Year | Teamname | Car | Engine | Driver | Races | Points | Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Kolles |
Audi R10 TDI | Audi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V12 (Diesel) | Charles Zwolsman Jr. |
5 | 12 | 7th |
| Andrew Meyrick |
5 | ||||||
 Narain Karthikeyan |
4 | ||||||
| Michael Krumm |
1 | ||||||
| Christijan Albers |
5 | 6 | 10th | ||||
| Christian Bakkerud |
5 | ||||||
.svg.png.webp){kind=small} Giorgio Mondini |
3 |
FIA World Endurance Championship results
* Season still in progress.
Le Mans 24 Hours Result
Timeline
The series in which the team competed are listed:
| Current series | |
|---|---|
| FIA World Endurance Championship | 2012–2020, 2023 |
| Le Mans Virtual Series | 2021– |
| Former series | |
| German Formula Three Championship | 2000–2002 |
| Formula 3 Euro Series | 2003–2004, 2009 |
| Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters | 2006–2009 |
| Le Mans Series | 2009 |
References
- "ByKolles Le Mans Hypercar revealed with Vanwall branding". Motor Authority. Retrieved 2023-01-12.
- "Lotus team re−named ByKolles Racing | FIA World Endurance Championship". Archived from the original on 2015-04-27. Retrieved 2015-05-19.
- "Former F1 racer Robert Kubica gets LMP1 ride for le Mans, WEC". 5 February 2017.
- Loewenberg, Gabriel. "Robert Kubica Withdraws From WEC Season". The Drive. Retrieved 2018-02-25.
- "Ex-Caterham F1 boss Ravetto joins ByKolles squad". www.motorsport.com. Archived from the original on 2018-02-26.
- Rachit Thukral (2 April 2022). "ByKolles-built Vanwall Le Mans Hypercar rolled out". Motorsport.com.
- Daniel Lloyd (11 January 2023). "Record Top-Category Field Headlines 38-Car Season Entry". sportscar365.com. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- "ByKolles Lose EUIPO Case Over Vanwall Trademark | dailysportscar.com". www.dailysportscar.com. 3 February 2023. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
