Zele Racing is an Austrian motor racing team currently competing in the BOSS GP series via a partnership with HS Engineering. The team has raced in Auto GP claiming the series' final stand-alone championship in 2015, along with having previously supported Super Formula teams Nakajima Racing and B-Max Racing, and B-Quik Absolute Racing in the Thailand Super Series.

History

Early history The team was founded by father and son duo Hermann and Michael Zele to compete in the regional Interserie. The team ran Formula Opel Lotus cars for Peter Milavec and Christoph Hingartner finishing first and second in the championship standings.

The team made its professional racing debut in the 2002 World Series by Nissan season. Argentine racer Nicolás Filiberti scored the best results for the team. Filiberti's best result was a fourth place at Circuito del Jarama and he ended twelfth in the series championship. Receiving sponsorship from Austrian asset management firm Superfund Group the team returned to the series in 2003. The team scored mixed results with one podium finish for Norbert Siedler. Siedler finished fifteenth in the series standings as the best Zele Racing driver. Christiano Rocha scored podium finishes in the Euro Formula 3000 series, the later Auto GP, in 2004.

Zele Racing was in charge of developing the stillborn Formula Superfund series. The series was intended to start for the 2005 season racing the Force 10 SF01 car replacing the Italian Formula 3000 championship. Patrick Lemarié tested the car at Estoril. Lemarié had a heavy crash and the series was therefore suspended indefinitely.

Between 2007 and 2012 the team focused on the Interserie, EuroBOSS and BOSS GP series. In 2010 the team won the final season of the original EuroBOSS series. The team's drivers Damien Charveriat and Andreas Zuber each won two races of the season that was canceled after four races. The drivers ran Dallara GP2/05 chassis, previously used in the GP2 Series until 2008.

Motopark Academy

Zele Racing and Motopark Academy entered a partnership for the 2008 Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup and the 2008 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. Michael Zele supported Motopark Academy with race engineering services. In the Northern European Cup Motopark Academy drivers Valtteri Bottas and António Félix da Costa finished first and second in the championship standings. The Eurocup drivers were less successful.

Epsilon Euskadi

Michael Zele was the race engineer for Stéphane Richelmi in the 2009 British Formula Three Championship racing with Barazi-Epsilon. Richelmis best result were two twelfth-place finishes. Zele also supported the team at the 2009 1000 km of Spa, the second round of the 2009 Le Mans Series. The team finished the race fourth in the LMP2 class with their Zytek 07S/2. However the car did not comply with technical regulations and was disqualified.

Auto GP The Austrian racing team returned to the professional racing circuit in 2012 entering the Auto GP series. During their inaugural, 2012, season the team entered seven different drivers over their two cars. Giacomo Ricci and Sergio Campana scored the best results for the team, both with a third-place finish. Ricci scored the podium finish at Marrakech while Campana scored his podium finish at Sonoma.

In 2013 the team started the season with reigning FIA Formula Two champion Luciano Bacheta and former Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan. Bacheta delivered the first race win, at Marrakech. Karthikeyan left the team after the Hungarian round. Karthikeyan felt frustrated with mistakes by the team during pitstops and technical preparation. Bacheta left the team after four rounds to focus on a possible GP2 Series move. Christian Klien replaced Bacheta for Mugello, along with Tamás Pál Kiss. The team did not race until the final round at Brno.

Tamás Pál Kiss remained for the majority of the 2014 season, winning at Paul Ricard. At Imola Kiss came in for a pit stop without the team knowing, this cost the Hungarian valuable points. After the difficult Imola weekend Kiss did not return with the team. The team stated financial difficulties as the reason for his absence.

The creation of the Formula Acceleration 1, which uses the same car as the Auto GP, caused both racing grids to shrink. This continued for the 2015 Auto GP season. At the start of the season the two championships had the intention to merge, but this did not come to fruition. The 2015 season opener fielded only eight cars, three of which were entered by Zele Racing. With only seven cars at the second round of the championship, the remainder of the season was canceled. Antônio Pizzonia had the best results and was unofficially crowned champion. The series was revived for 2016, but again with very small grids. After the first round of the season the championship merged with BOSS GP.

Motorsports results

Complete World Series by Nissan results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year No. Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos Points 2002 18 Nicolás Filiberti VAL15 VAL27 JAR1DNS JAR24 ALB1Ret ALB28 MON18 MON27 MAG1Ret MAG216 BAR118 BAR212 CUR112 CUR212 INT1 INT2 12th 32 Damien Faulkner VAL113 VAL29 26th 2 19 VAL111 VAL212 JAR117 JAR2Ret Ivan Bellarosa ALB112 ALB213 MNZ1Ret MNZ213 27th 0 Walter Lechner Jr MAG115 MAG28 24th 3 Rafael Sarandeses BAR1Ret BAR2Ret VAL110 VAL2Ret 16th 17 Jaime Melo CUR115 CUR210 INT15 INT2Ret 20th 9 2003 14 Norbert Siedler JAR1Ret JAR2Ret ZOL13 ZOL26 MAG112 MAG2Ret MNZ1Ret MNZ2Ret LAU119 LAU217 A1R16 A1R210 BAR1 BAR2 15th 25 Guy Smith VAL1DNS VAL2DNS JAR1 JAR2 NC - 15 Christiano Rocha JAR1Ret JAR2Ret ZOL19 ZOL29 MAG1Ret MAG29 MNZ16 MNZ2Ret LAU114 LAU2Ret A1R1 A1R2 BAR1 BAR2 VAL1 VAL2 JAR1 JAR2 17th 12

Complete Italian F3000/Auto GP results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year No. Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pos Points 2004 18 Christiano Rocha BRN6 ESTRet JERRet MNZ2 SPADNS DON3 DIJ ZOL3 NÜR NÜR 8th 15 19 Sven Heidfeld BRN8 ESTRet JER MNZ SPA DON DIJ ZOL NÜR NÜR 17th 0 2012 8 Giacomo Ricci MNZ16 MNZ214 MAR15 MAR23 11th 40 Matteo Beretta VAL117 VAL213 24th 0 Sten Pentus HUN19 HUN24 ALG114 ALG2Ret CUR1 CUR2 15th 14 Sergio Campana SON14 SON23 6th 909 Peter Milavec MNZ1 MNZ2 VAL115 VAL216 MAR1 MAR2 HUN1 HUN2 25th 0 Juan Carlos Sistos ALG19 ALG2Ret CUR1 CUR2 23rd 2 Antônio Pizzonia SON1Ret SON212 9th 45 2013 8 Luciano Bacheta MNZ18 MNZ22 MAR18 MAR21 HUN116 HUN29 SIL110 SIL28 11th 49 Christian Klien MUG18 MUG29 NÜR1 NÜR2 DON1 DON2 18th 6 Josef Král BRN215 BRN212 23rd 0 9 Narain Karthikeyan MNZ15 MNZ2Ret MAR16 MAR2Ret HUN18 HUN24 11th 49 Tamás Pál Kiss SIL13 SIL27 MUG15 MUG24 NÜR1 NÜR2 DON1 DON2 BRN25 BRN25 5th 99 2014 8 Sergio Campana MAR110 MAR2Ret 21st 1 Yoshitaka Kuroda LEC18 LEC29 HUN16 HUN211 12th 36 Christof von Grünigen MNZ1Ret MNZ29 IMO17 IMO27 RBR17 RBR2Ret NÜR1 NÜR2 18th 18 Antônio Pizzonia EST14 EST23 14th 25 9 Tamás Pál Kiss MAR1Ret MAR23 LEC11 LEC22 HUN12 HUN27 MNZ12 MNZ25 IMO19 IMO29 RBR1 RBR2 NÜR1 NÜR2 2nd 207 Luís Sá Silva EST17 EST22 16th 21 10 Samin Gómez MAR1 MAR2 LEC1 LEC2 HUN1 HUN2 MNZ19 MNZ2Ret IMO1WD IMO2WD RBR1 RBR2 NÜR1 NÜR2 EST1 EST2 20th 1 2015 8 Antônio Pizzonia HUN12 HUN21 SIL11 SIL23 LEC1C LEC2C ZAN1C ZAN2C BRN1C BRN2C BAR1C BAR2C 1st 79 9 Andrés Méndez HUN18 HUN29 SIL16 SIL26 LEC1C LEC2C ZAN1C ZAN2C BRN1C BRN2C BAR1C BAR2C 9th 20 10 Luís Sá Silva HUN16 HUN24 SIL13 SIL21 LEC1C LEC2C ZAN1C ZAN2C BRN1C BRN2C BAR1C BAR2C 3rd 53 2016 7 Luís Sá Silva ADR15 ADR22 MNZ1 MNZ2 ASS1 ASS2 BRN1 BRN2 IMO1 IMO2 6th 29 8 Dominik Fekete ADR13 ADR25 MNZ1 MNZ2 ASS1 ASS2 BRN1 BRN2 IMO1 IMO2 7th 25 9 Zoltan Fekete ADR16 ADR24 MNZ1 MNZ2 ASS1 ASS2 BRN1 BRN2 IMO1 IMO2 9th 20 444 Philipp Sager ADR1 ADR2 MNZ1 MNZ2 ASS1 ASS2 BRN1 BRN2 IMO17 IMO25 4th 34 789 Christof von Grünigen ADR1 ADR2 MNZ17 MNZ24 ASS1Ret ASS28 BRN13 BRN2Ret IMO1 IMO2 3rd 74

Complete TCR International Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year No. Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pos Points 2017 55 Ferenc Ficza RIM12 RIM213 BHR1 BHR2 SPA1 SPA2 MNZ1 MNZ2 SAL1 SAL2 HUN1 HUN2 OSC1 OSC2 BUR1 BUR2 ZHE1 ZHE2 YMC1 YMC2 5th 21

References