Colin Kolles: The intellectual saviour of F1?

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.