ByKolles Racing, formerly known as Kodewa, is an Austrian-German auto racing team based in Greding, Germany. The team most recently fielded the No. 4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2023. It was founded in 2000 by Romulus Kolles and his son Colin Kolles as Kolles Racing, but has undergone several rebrands over the years. These include a sponsorship deal with Lotus Cars from 2012 to 2014, a failed takeover of Tyrrell's naming rights, and a subsequent switch to Vanwall that went to court in 2023.
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.
In 2017 Robert Kubica was set to return to active racing again in the ByKolles car for the WEC season. In April 2018 he withdrew from the team before the first race of the 2018-2019 season.
Former Caterham F1 boss Manfredi Ravetto joined the ByKolles team in 2018.
In 2019 Kolles announced his team would not compete in the full 2019-2020 FIA World Endurance championship, but would still compete in the 2019 24 hours of Le Mans. This was announced to allow the team to contest in the then forthcoming Le Mans Hypercar class.
On March 25, 2022, Kolles announced his intention to enter the car in the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship, stating that "If we receive a welcome, we will be ready to race."
On 2 April 2022 the team revealed the new Vanwall Le Mans Hypercar following a photoshoot held at a German airport some days earlier with Christophe Bouchut driving the car. The team officially rebranded to become the Vanwall Racing Team with the chassis named after 1950s Vanwall team owner Tony Vandervell.
On 11 January 2023, the entry was accepted by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and the team would enter the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship in the Hypercar class with the Vanwall Vandervell 680, built to LMH specifications. The team's lineup would consist of Tom Dillmann, Jacques Villeneuve and Esteban Guerrieri, with the car being sponsored by German travel bag and luggage company Floyd GmbH.
The Vanwall name was registered as a marque by Kolles' agents PMC, in Germany, before the launch of the car. However, the use of the Vanwall marque is in question after ByKolles lost a EUIPO case brought by the continuity project Vanwall 1958 based in the UK, who also plan to build cars for competition using the Vanwall marque and history.
After a string of uncompetitive results and retirements, Villeneuve was dropped by the team for the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans and replaced with Tristan Vautier. Villeneuve subsequently withdrew from the remainder of the season, releasing a statement questioning the team's actions and expressing his disappointment at the situation. Dillmann would leave the team following the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, stating that his leave was on "good terms"; he was replaced by João Paulo de Oliveira for future rounds. Ryan Briscoe would end up replacing de Oliveira for the final round of the season. In November 2023 the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship entry list was announced and did not include the team. It was later revealed that Kolles had struck an engine deal with Pipo Moteurs, who had previously powered Glickenhaus, before the entry request was declined.
Results German Formula Three Championship results YearTeamnameCarEngineDriverRacesPointsPos.2000AIL Team Kolles RacingDallara F300Mugen-Honda Elran Nijenhuis141818th Andreas Feichtner4424th Peter Sundberg10425th Marc Hynes20NC2001Team Kolles RacingDallara F300Mugen-Honda Pierre Kaffer201564th Kimmo Liimatainen202516th2002Team Kolles RacingDallara F302Mugen-Honda João Paulo de Oliveira141612th Charles Zwolsman Jr.10815th Ross Zwolsman10021st Sakon Yamamoto6022ndDallara F399 Stefano Proetto14030th
Formula 3 Euro Series results YearTeamnameCarEngineDriverRacesPointsPos.2003KollesDallara F303Mercedes Charles Zwolsman Jr.20719thDallara F302 Jamie Green6620th Jan Heylen14028th2004Team KollesDallara F303Mercedes Adrian Sutil18917th Maximilian Götz2319thDallara F302 Tom Kimber-Smith20220th2009Kolles & Heinz UnionDallara F309Volkswagen Robert Wickens4022nd Johan Jokinen18024th Nick Tandy16028th Carlo van Dam4031st Edoardo Mortara20NC
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results YearTeamnameCarDriverRacesPointsPos.2006Futurecom TMEAudi A4 DTM 2004 Vanina Ickx10019th Jeroen Bleekemolen2020th Olivier Tielemans3021st Thed Björk2022nd Nicolas Kiesa3023rd2007Futurecom TMEAudi A4 DTM 2005 Adam Carroll5018th Markus Winkelhock5019th Vanina Ickx10021st2008Futurecom TMEAudi A4 DTM 2006 Christijan Albers11019th Katherine Legge11021st2009Kolles FuturecomAudi A4 DTM 2007 Tomáš Kostka10017th Christian Bakkerud9019th Johannes Seidlitz8020th
Le Mans Series results YearTeamnameCarEngineDriverRacesPointsPos.2009 KollesAudi R10 TDIAudi TDI 5.5 L Turbo V12 (Diesel) Charles Zwolsman Jr.5127th Andrew Meyrick5 Narain Karthikeyan4 Michael Krumm1 Christijan Albers5610th Christian Bakkerud5 Giorgio Mondini3
FIA World Endurance Championship results YearTeamnameCarEngineClassTyreDriverRacesPointsPos.2012 LotusLola B12/80Lotus (Judd) 3.6 L V8LMP2 Thomas Holzer8 32 8th Mirco Schultis7 Luca Moro4 Renger van der Zande1 Christijan Albers1 Luca Moro1 N/A NC Kevin Weeda6 James Rossiter6 Vitantonio Liuzzi4 Jan Charouz12013 LotusLotus T128Praga (Judd) 3.6 L V8LMP2 Kevin Weeda8118th Vitantonio Liuzzi6 Christophe Bouchut4 James Rossiter4 Lucas Auer8 Thomas Holzer8377th Dominik Kraihamer8 Jan Charouz82014 LotusCLM P1/01AER P60 2.4 L Turbo V6LMP1-L James Rossiter2333rd Christophe Bouchut2 Lucas Auer3 Pierre Kaffer4 Simon Trummer1 Nathanaël Berthon12015 Team ByKollesCLM P1/01AER P60 2.4 L Turbo V6LMP1 Simon Trummer8 104 3rd Vitantonio Liuzzi2 Christian Klien2 Tiago Monteiro1 Pierre Kaffer62016 ByKolles Racing TeamCLM P1/01AER P60 2.4 L Turbo V6LMP1 Simon Trummer9 109 2nd Oliver Webb9 James Rossiter2 Pierre Kaffer62017 ByKolles Racing TeamENSO CLM P1/01Nismo VRX30A 3.0 L Turbo V6LMP1 Oliver Webb4 N/A NC Dominik Kraihamer4 James Rossiter2 Marco Bonanomi42018-2019 ByKolles Racing TeamENSO CLM P1/01Nismo VRX30A 3.0 L Turbo V6Gibson GL458 4.5 L V8LMP1 Oliver Webb 5224th Tom Dillmann 4 Dominik Kraihamer 2 René Binder 1 James Rossiter 22019-2020 ByKolles Racing TeamENSO CLM P1/01Gibson GL458 4.5 L V8LMP1 Tom Dillmann 2N/ANC Bruno Spengler 2 Oliver Webb 22023 Vanwall Racing TeamVanwall Vandervell 680Gibson GL458 4.5 L V8LMH Tom Dillmann 4 10 7th Esteban Guerrieri 7 Jacques Villeneuve 3 Tristan Vautier4 João Paulo de Oliveira2 Ryan Briscoe1
24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Entrant No. Car Drivers Class Laps 2009 Kolles 14 Audi R10 TDI Narain Karthikeyan André Lotterer Charles Zwolsman Jr. LMP1 369 7th 7th 15 Christijan Albers Christian Bakkerud Giorgio Mondini 360 9th 9th 2010 Kolles 14 Audi R10 TDI Christophe Bouchut Manuel Rodrigues Scott Tucker LMP1 182 DNF DNF 15 Christijan Albers Christian Bakkerud Oliver Jarvis 331 DNF DNF 2012 Lotus 31 Lola B12/80-Lotus (Judd) Thomas Holzer Luca Moro Mirco Schultis LMP2 155 DNF DNF 2013 Lotus 31 Lotus T128-Praga (Judd) Christophe Bouchut James Rossiter Kevin Weeda LMP2 17 DNF DNF 32 Jan Charouz Thomas Holzer Dominik Kraihamer 219 DNF DNF 2015 Team ByKolles 4 CLM P1/01-AER Pierre Kaffer Tiago Monteiro Simon Trummer LMP1 260 EX EX 2016 ByKolles Racing Team 4 CLM P1/01-AER Pierre Kaffer Simon Trummer Oliver Webb LMP1 206 DNF DNF 2017 ByKolles Racing Team 4 ENSO CLM P1/01-Nismo Marco Bonanomi Dominik Kraihamer Oliver Webb LMP1 7 DNF DNF 2018 ByKolles Racing Team 4 ENSO CLM P1/01-Nismo Tom Dillmann Dominik Kraihamer Oliver Webb LMP1 65 DNF DNF 2019 ByKolles Racing Team 4 ENSO CLM P1/01-Gibson Tom Dillmann Paolo Ruberti Oliver Webb LMP1 163 DNF DNF 2020 ByKolles Racing Team 4 ENSO CLM P1/01-Gibson Tom Dillmann Bruno Spengler Oliver Webb LMP1 97 DNF DNF 2023 Floyd Vanwall Racing Team 4 Vanwall Vandervell 680-Gibson Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Tristan Vautier Hypercar 165 DNF DNF
Timeline The series in which the team competed are listed: Former series German Formula Three Championship 2000–2002 Formula 3 Euro Series 2003–2004, 2009 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters 2006–2009 Le Mans Series 2009 FIA World Endurance Championship 2012–2020, 2023
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