Team Kolles

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Team principal Colin Kolles at the 2009 Okayama 1000 km race

Team Kolles is a German motorsport team led by team boss Colin Kolles . From 2006 to 2009 it competed in the DTM under the name Futurecom . In 2009 and 2010 it took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in 2009 in the Le Mans Series . The successor team is byKolles Racing, which will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2015 .

history

Beginnings in German Formula 3

The Kolles team, based in Greding in the Roth district of Middle Franconia , was founded in 2000 and initially competed in the German Formula 3 Championship . Just one year later, Kolles driver Pierre Kaffer and his team were able to win four races and fight for the championship for a long time. At the end of the 2001 season, Kaffer finished fourth in the drivers' standings.

DTM

Christijan Albers 2008 at the Norisring

Between 2006 and 2009, the team took part in the DTM , initially under the name Futurecom , with the support of the Audi factory . Two-year-old vehicles with an Audi A4 silhouette were used, with which the team was unable to score points.

In the debut season , Vanina Ickx drove the first vehicle, while the second cockpit was given to Olivier Tielemans at the beginning of the season . After just three races, he was exchanged for Jeroen Bleekemolen , who in turn only contested two races before he was replaced by Nicolas Kiesa . For health reasons, Kiesa could not compete in the last two races in which he was represented by Thed Björk .

Vanina Ickx kept her cockpit for the 2007 season . Her teammate was Adam Carroll , who switched to the GP2 series after five races at the halfway point of the season. Markus Winkelhock then took over his vehicle . In 2008 the Kolles vehicles were again in firm hands. The first vehicle was given to Katherine Legge , while the second vehicle went to Christijan Albers . Colin Kolles dismissed him from Formula 1 in his role as team boss of the Spyker F1 team last year and has now been given a cockpit in the DTM again. In 2009 , Kolles' DTM vehicle fleet was increased to a third Audi A4. For the team went Christian Bakkerud , Tomáš Kostka and Johannes Seidlitz at the start, the latter with just 18 years ago in his first race of the youngest racer in the history of the DTM.

Le Mans Series and Le Mans 24 Hours

Audi R10 TDI 2009 in Barcelona

For the 2009 season , the team acquired two Audi R10 TDIs with which it has been competing in the Le Mans Series since then . One vehicle was shared by drivers Charles Zwolsman junior , Andrew Meyrick and Narain Karthikeyan , in whose place Michael Krumm was still at the wheel of the first race of the season in Barcelona . The second vehicle was driven by Christijan Albers and Christian Bakkerud, who were also supported by Giorgio Mondini in three of five races . After a difficult opening race, in which one vehicle retired and the other only reached the finish line several laps behind due to problems, both vehicles took sixth and seven championship points in the following 1000-kilometer race in Spa-Francorchamps . Another clear lap was followed by the best result in the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring with fourth place thanks to Karthikeyan, Meyrick and Zwolsman. The season finale at Silverstone was also successful, when the cars finished fifth and sixth and were once again able to place in the points. In the team classification, the two Kolles teams finally achieved positions seven and ten.

The highlight of the year for the Kolles team was their participation in the 2009 Le Mans 24-hour race . The proven vehicles survived the long distance without any problems. Charles Zwolsman and André Lotterer brought their car home in seventh place after 24 hours, although their teammate Narain Karthikeyan dislocated his shoulder in a fall from the pit wall shortly before the start and was unable to participate in the race, so Zwolsman and Lotterer considered the race Had to contest a team of two. Christian Bakkerud, Christijan Albers and Giorgio Mondini in the second Kolles Audi were in ninth place at the end of the race and thus rounded off the successful outcome of the race from Kolles' point of view.

Colin Kolles' team has been involved in Formula 1 with the Hispania Racing F1 Team since 2010 . She has not participated in the Le Mans Series since then. However, the Kolles team returned to Le Mans for the 2010 24-hour race with its two Audi R10 TDIs . Christophe Bouchut , Scott Tucker and Manuel Rodrigues took turns at the wheel of the first vehicle , while the second vehicle was occupied by Christijan Albers, Oliver Jarvis and Christian Bakkerud. After just 182 laps, Bouchut, Tucker and Rodrigues were forced to give up. For Bakkerud, Jarvis and Albers, however, the race went without any problems for a long time. After several competitors had dropped out in the front positions, the trio found themselves in fourth place in the final phase of the race. This gave the team the prospect of their greatest success to date. Only two and a half hours before the end of the race and after 331 laps had been completed, the Audi R10 TDI broke down due to gearbox damage.

Since 2015 Kolles has been taking part in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship with his team, which drives under an Austrian license.

Kolles & Heinz Union

To promote young talent, Colin Kolles and Werner Heinz founded the Kolles & Heinz Union team , which has been fielding two vehicles in the Formula 3 Euro Series since 2009 . Robert Wickens , Carlo van Dam , Johan Jokinen , Nick Tandy and Edoardo Mortara were used as drivers, but they did not score any points.

Individual results in the DTM

season	vehicle	No.	driver	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	Points	rank
2006	Audi A4 DTM (2004)			HO1	LAU	OSC	BRH	NOR	ONLY	ZAN	BAR	LEM	HO2		-	-
		19th	Olivier Tielemans	13	17th	19th
			Jeroen Bleekemolen				14th	12
			Nicolas Kiesa						17th	16	DNF
			Thed Bjork									14th	DNF
		20th	Vanina Ickx	15th	16	18th	DNF	13	18th	DNF	DNF	16	11
2007	Audi A4 DTM (2005)			HO1	OSC	LAU	BRH	NOR	MUG	ZAN	ONLY	BAR	HO2		-	-
		20th	Adam Carroll	DNF	9	11	15th	17th
			Markus Winkelhock						9	13	DNF	12 *	13
		21st	Vanina Ickx	15th	DNF	15th	17th	DNF	DNF	DNS	19th	13 *	18th
2008	Audi A4 DTM (2006)			HO1	OSC	MUG	LAU	NOR	ZAN	ONLY	BRH	BAR	LEM	HO2	-	-
		20th	Katherine Legge	18th	17th	18th	15th	15th	16 *	DNF	18th	DNF	16	DNF
		21st	Christijan Albers	DNF	16	13	14th	DNF	DNF	11	14th	10	13	DNF
2009	Audi A4 DTM (2007)			HO1	LAU	NOR	ZAN	OSC	ONLY	BRH	BAR	DIJ	HO2		-	-
		18th	Christian Bakkerud	14th	14th	15th	DSQ		13	16	17th	DNF	12
		19th	Johannes Seidlitz	13	DNS			DNF	15th	17th	18th	DNF	13
		20th	Tomáš Kostka	11	13	DNF	DNF	14th	15th	14th	16	17th	11

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Web links

Commons : Team Kolles  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• byKolles Racing Official Homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Team Kolles scores with both Audi R10 TDIs" (Audi Motorsport on May 11, 2009)
2. ↑ "Team Kolles shines with catching up" (Audi Motorsport on September 14, 2009)
3. ↑ "Sensational result for Team Kolles in Le Mans"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) (Team Kolles)
4. ↑ "Le Mans: Kolles presents its driver line-up" (Motorsport-Total.com on May 26, 2010)
5. ↑ "Kolles-Audi: Bad luck in Le Mans" (Motorsport-Total.com on June 17, 2010)
6. ^ "Back to the roots" (Motorsport-Magazin.com on November 21, 2008)