Colin Kolles: The intellectual saviour of F1?

Drivers have been the centre of attention in Formula 1, but the fact is that the drivers alone aren’t the driving force of the sport. There are numerous departments in Formula 1, and it is the job of the Team Principals to coordinate those departments, to adhere to the demands of the drivers, and also to face the scrutiny from the team bosses if they fail at their job. Although Mercedes and Toto Wolff would claim that Team Principals are a thing of the past, and despite the fact that it is easy to forget the role played by the Team Principals, especially those at the back of the field, the fact remains that if those personnel goof up on their job, the destiny of several of these back-markers could have been very different.

One of those forgotten men is Colin Kolles.

Plenty of people might have stopped reading this article at the mention of Kolles, but then Kolles is probably the most underrated person in this sport, and also one of the most hated personalities, probably in the same league as Sebastian Vettel. Kolles has been controversy’s favourite child, with his most recent controversy being the case of the alleged blackmailing of Mercedes Chief Toto Wolff.

Kolles is a qualified dentist, and that’s his family business. He became a part of the racing fraternity in 2000 when he along with his father founded the Kodewa racing team, the company that took part in German Formula 3 before moving to F3 Euro Series in 2003. Kolles was then called up by the Midland Group and was appointed as the Managing Director-cum-Team Principal of the venture.

Kolles held his position until 2009 and oversaw the transition of the team from Midland to Spyker and to Force India. Kolles was then ousted by Vijay Mallya in 2009, and he left the sport to look after the Kodewa racing team which was now taking part in Le Mans. Kolles made a comeback to F1 in 2010 when he was asked to rescue the struggling Campos Meta which was later known as Hispania Racing and then as HRT. Kolles was appointed as the Team Principal, and he held his position until the start of 2012.

Unlike other prominent names of his cadre, Kolles’s approach was more realistic to say the least. His name was prominent in the APAC region, but after his tiff with Narain Karthikeyan, people’s opinion about him changed dramatically. Narain reported that Kolles had asked a fortune for a seat in Midland for the 2006 season. Kolles denied the allegations, and issued a statement of his own.

“Narain has lost out because of his management, A pro driver has professional management but we didn’t see that in his case. Narain was just not available for us. He had a very fair offer from us and it was much less than what he said. Money is not really the problem. To succeed in Formula One, one needs a lot more. The benefits for us were zero. It did nothing for Jordan.” – Kolles

“I stand by what I’ve said, if he doesn’t like the way we work, then I don’t like the way he works.” – Narain Karthikeyan

Time can heal all wounds. Karthikeyan was approached by Colin Kolles for a drive in his team’s venture in Le Mans. Although the Indian didn’t take part in the renowned 24-hour race due to a dislocated shoulder, his relationship with Kolles seemed to have overcome its fractures.

The level of salvage operations that Kolles has carried out during his stint at the pinnacle of the motorsports is quite amazing. Kolles was responsible for the Spyker deal, after Michiel Mol showed interest in the Midland team. Kolles spent over 6 months to ensure the team changed hands, with Michiel Mol said to take over of the parent company of Spyker cars. Michiel Mol succeed in taking over Spyker and Midland F1 was sold to the Dutch Family, while Christijan Albers was brought into the team. Kolles meanwhile brought in several technical changes by recruiting small but talented people including the likes of Mike Gascoyne and James Key, and also was firm on not taking a pay driver for the sake of it. This is how Kolles talked about his activities during an interview:

Q. Personally how do you feel now that the deal is finally official – can you relax a little bit?Kolles: “This is not my way. I’m more motivated than before. OK, I’ve had no holidays for two years. At Monza I didn’t sleep at all on Thursday night, I slept for two and a half hours on Friday, and then five hours on Saturday! But I wasn’t feeling tired, because I’m motivated.Q. Are you looking for drivers who can bring a budget?CK: This is always a point that I have to defend! For me Christijan, for example, is not a pay driver. He’s been more successful than a Mark Webber in the past. If Vodafone is coming to Ferrari with $40m because they are running Michael Schumacher, is he a pay driver? Our drivers are getting salaries, so for me they are not pay drivers. If there are sponsors associated with them who want to join the drivers, it’s a different matter. We’ll try to find the best way, for sure. We’ll get the quickest driver, and if we get a $40m sponsor with him it’s even nicer, because then we can improve the team even more!”

A relatively unknown Adrian Sutil was hired as the test driver for Midland F1, and was promoted to the race seat with the transition of the team. Kolles was extremely optimistic about this lad, and he ensured that Sutil retained his seat even after Force India took over. 2014 will be the first year for Sutil to see a team other than Midland/Spyker/Force India. Sutil did more justice to his role than most of the drivers that were signed during the stint of Kolles, and it has to be said that the connection between Sutil and Kolles did help the German initially.

2010 was perhaps the most remarkable year for Kolles. As FIA teased a budget plan, and intensive RRA for Formula 1, new teams were invited. Adrian Campos filed an application; his team was selected, and the team gained significant shareholders from Spain due to the presence of Meta Image. However, Campos Meta ran into financial troubles, and the team was musing over the potential Tony Teixeira deal which was met with stiff resistance from established teams. One of the shareholders, José Ramón Carabante, took full control of the team, and he replaced Campos with Kolles on 19 February 2010 with only few weeks before the first Grand Prix.

The Dallara-designed car was powered by Cosworth and with no pre season testing, it was heading into the first race with massive risks. Bruno Senna performed the initial shakedown at the Free Practice sessions, and Karun Chandhok’s initial shakedown was at the qualifying. The team stated that the first four races were to be seen as extended test sessions, and the team suffered numerous issues with reliability. The team further went on to add two more drivers to the group, with Bruno Senna taking part in a majority of the races while others juggled around the second seat.

Meanwhile, the technical changes were happening in full force back in the factory. Kolles ensured that the team survived right through their maiden season by hiring Yamamoto, and he later hired Klien to make some progress with the car. It wasn’t a secret that Hispania were running out of cash, but it was a very tall effort by them to compete in all the Grand Prix with no pre season testing, and the technical team being located across multiple locations on the globe also had to be seen as a thorn in their efforts.

The team parted ways with Dallara and was supposed to use the Toyota chassis for 2011, but again the cash crunch meant that the team had to continue using the 2010 chassis with major modifications for one more season. Two drivers were recruited, and the team tried to settle under one new roof, as Thesan Capital brought a controlling stake from José Ramón Carabante with the aim of making the team more Spanish. Kolles was replaced by Luis Perez-Sala for the 2012 season with several media reports claiming that Kolles was sacked due to the differences with the new owners.

Kolles had already made a strong impact and set the base for the 2012 season. The team was starting to come under one roof. Kolles insisted on a new livery for the 2011 season which had the famous words “This Could be You” across the car. While that may not have attained major sponsors, the Daniel Simon designed livery raised quite a few eyebrows. The Dallara designed car under the helms of Geoff Willis outclassed Virgin/Marussia on merit for two seasons, despite having a far inferior infrastructure as compared to its nearest rival.

Kolles continued to run the team despite the liquidity crunch, and found ways to raise more eyebrows. Presumably with an undisclosed financial backing from Red Bull, the unknown Daniel Ricciardo was roped in to drive for some odd rounds over the course of the 2011 season. There were only a handful of staff members, but they were working under a tight budget, and were thus more efficient as they had significant pressure to perform. Kolles further signed deals with Mercedes for the wind-tunnel programme, and set the course for the 2012 season.

It can be argued that Kolles can only rescue a team which is under a liquidity crunch, and cannot take the team further up the ladder. But it has to be remembered that Kolles was never given an opportunity to continue his progress, and he was cut short when there was a guaranteed sign of movement. It takes considerable time to move up the ladder, as seen in the case of Red Bull, and people often forget the role of time in any evolution. Kolles’s stints at Midland/Spyker/Force India laid the foundations for the team’s growth into what they are now.

Q. “The team has made good progress this year. Do you now have the backing to really move forward?”Kolles: This has been discussed, and there are certain plans and a certain strategy. We will have Mike Gascoyne, who is a future investment, and we will have the wind tunnel upgrade, which has already started. We want to upgrade our performance, and to do this, we will take all the necessary steps.”

Arguably, one of Force India’s best seasons was 2009, which was the last year of Kolles’s involvement. The foundation stone for that season, where the team grabbed a podium on sheer merit and was the fastest car on low downforce circuits, was the work that had put in until that year. The team was rich with several high profile technical staff members including the likes of Mike Gascoyne, James Key, and Mark Smith. Kolles built a brigade of excellent technicians, and as he himself stated, Gascoyne and others were a significant future investment.

That particular 2009 season was the team’s best after their glorious Jordan era. Unfortunately, due to some unknown internal tiff, most of the technicians including Kolles left the team or were sacked. With the rate of progress that Force India showed, it would have been interesting to see what might have happened if that particular brigade of staff along with Kolles had stayed on for a couple of seasons more.

The contribution of Kolles to HRT was even more significant. The team ran on a narrow rope, and its fate was always questioned. Never in the recent history of the sport was such pressure exercised on a team to survive and to perform miracles. HRT under Kolles battled odds, performed exorcist steps, and survived. The technical difficulties were massive, as several technicians were scattered across the globe and were struggling to come under one roof. Yet, the car was reliable, and it didn’t fall apart as expected. Best of all, HRT didn’t take a leaf from the books of Mastercard Lola or the great Andrea Moda. Compared to the likes of Coloni who didn’t even make it to the finish line in 14 Grand Prix of the 81 GP entries, HRT did far better during the 2010 season campaign.

“My role is to clean up the chaos! They had basically nothing, only chaos. The only department which basically exists is a software department, with eight guys who never saw an F1 car in their lives, and who are doing software simulation programmes. Then there are two or three engineers with F1 experience, and that’s it. The real story is a crazy story, you understand. We will have two cars in Bahrain. I don’t know how we will have them, and I don’t care, but we will have two cars on the grid. If this is going to be achieved, I think this is one of the most amazing things, I tell you. They had nothing. They had one empty workshop with nothing inside…” – Kolles

It’s high time for Kolles to get one last chance to redeem his pride. Strong signals coming out of the FIA camp indicate that he is one of the likely aspirants for the 2015 entry slot along with Stefan GP and Stewart-Haas team. Unlike his other stints in Formula 1, this 2015 entry will do justice to his own merit, as he starts from the scratch and doesn’t have to answer to anyone.

Kolles has done it all in Formula 1, and he has even used his dentistry skills on two occasions. Ahead of the 2005 Turkish Grand Prix, Kolles performed a dental operation on Tiago Monteiro, and performed a similar operation on Christijan Albers in 2006. In the recent past, it was also reported that Kolles was set to take over Sauber but the deal failed, and it would have been a different story if Kolles took over an established team and worked his way to the top.

Kolles is truly an Intellectual Savior, but if his name has to find its way in the history books, he probably needs to raise from the ashes, and has to carry a team to glory.