WEC | Kolles: “Vanwall homologated soon, Sebring is an unknown factor”

Colin Kolles is convinced that his team will leave to compete with the others when the 2023 season of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship kicks off in exactly one month.

The ByKolles Racing chief spoke in a panel discussion with the other directors of the rival Hypercar Class teams, taking stock of the situation with journalists present, including Motorsport.com.

In these days the Vanwall Vandervell 680 LMH is back on track for a test with the three riders chosen for this adventure – Esteban Guerrieri, Jacques Villeneuve and Tom Dillmann – to then go to the wind tunnel and refine some things.

Kolles shows confidence that the team can immediately be in contention for good positions, taking advantage of the fact that the Hypercar regulation is more restrictive than the LMP1 prototypes, so even those with fewer resources play a few more cards.

Vanwall Vandervell LMH, By Kolles Racing

Photo by: Vanwall Group

“The first important thing for this year is to be in the match, something we weren’t allowed to do in 2022. We obviously want to be competitive, taking advantage of the fact that, compared to the past, the Constructors don’t have all this big advantage over the small teams individuals,” explains Kolles.

“The LMH situation is totally different compared to the LMP1 era, we all start on the same basis and therefore this makes the task easier for us”.

“At the moment we are engaged in private tests in the Sauber wind tunnel, next week instead we will do the official homologation of the car”.

“During the track tests we tried by adapting to the new regulations, such as the ban on tyrewarmers. That’s right, there’s not much else to say”.

Vanwall Vandervell LMH, By Kolles Racing

Photo by: Vanwall Group

The 1000 Miles of Sebring will take place on 17 March and the first values ​​in the field will begin to emerge there, even if the Vanwall is the only car that has never been tested in Florida.

“Personally I think our package is competitive and reliable on all, shall we say, normal tracks. We’ve never tested at Sebring, so it will be a complete surprise for us from every point of view, at least in comparison with the others. We’ll see how he will go, we will discover things along the way and I hope we can have a good race.”

The question mark remains over the team’s name, given that the use of the Vanwall name was recently denied to ByKolles Racing by a court in a dispute that is far from closed.

“The name of the team is clear, I have nothing else to add. I think journalists should at least find out how things are before writing or filming certain articles”.

Jacques Villeneuve, Vanwall Vandervell LMH, ByKolles Racing

Photo by: Vanwall Group

Finally, Kolles spoke of the market hit, i.e. the signing of Villeneuve for 2023, and how the chances of having a seat have gone in favor of the Canadian compared to Joao Paulo De Oliveira, who was also seen at work on the Vandervell in winter testing.

“To be honest, it was more or less a coincidence. We have known each other for many years thanks to Formula 1, through a mutual friend we got in touch. He seemed very interested in returning to racing for a full season. We therefore organized this test in Barcelona and we invited him to see if he liked driving the car.”

“Later, we tried to find a solution to sign him and continue. I think it’s very good for us, for the WEC and for everyone to have an F1 World Champion, IndyCar Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner. It’s going to be tough. , very long, because he hasn’t done many kms in the car. But we have the Sebring Prologue, so we’re planning to put it through as many tests as possible and we’ll see how it goes.”

“De Oliveira is a friend of ours, he was our driver as you know, we’ve known him for more than 20 years. When he went to Europe, we kept in touch and took care of him.”

“JP is always part of our network and if we get the chance to get a second car for Le Mans or for the future, he’s always an option. He’s a very talented and fast driver.”