Kolles new Campos boss in takeover
Date published : 19 Feb 2010 - 19:02:33
The new Campos Meta team has undergone a major restructure in a bid to ensure it is ready to appear at the opening race of the season in Bahrain next month.
Spanish businessman Jose Ramon Carabante has increased his stake in the team to become its new majority shareholder while founder Adrian Campos has been replaced as team principal by former Force India managing director Colin Kolles, who returns to Formula 1 after a year on the sidelines.
Carabante, who already held the role of team president, credited F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone with helping put the deal together and says that while the squad still has a lot of work to do to be ready for its maiden season it is now in a position where it will be able to make the grid.
"I would like to thank Bernie Ecclestone, who worked tremendously to support our efforts to keep the team viable, he said in a statement issued early on Friday evening.
The whole rescue operation has been a race against time with the goal of always having the team run two competitive cars at the first Grand Prix of the F1 season in Bahrain.
We have a lot of hard work still ahead of us but we are excited about making our F1 debut and looking forward to a competitive season."
The Spanish-based team, along with fellow new 2010 entrant US F1, has been dogged by rumours in recent months about the state of its finances, with speculation that Campos had fallen behind in its payments to its chassis builder Dallara.
Carabante has confirmed that following his takeover the team will continue to be based in Spain, although he made no indication as to whether Adrian Campos would continue to play a role at the squad or if the team's name would be changed.
Kolles, meanwhile, will reprise the duel team boss and managing director role he fulfilled under Midland, Spyker and Force India ownership at what was originally the Jordan team between 2005 and 2008 before he was axed along with technical chief Mike Gascoyne by Vijay Mallya in November 2008.
The Romanian former dentist has been charged with the task of ensuring Campos is fully operational in time for the Bahrain season-opener on March 14.
Kolles himself who officially parted company with Force India last October says he's up for the challenge of getting Campos in shape and reveals his first priorities will be to secure the extra funding necessary to guarantee the team's participation in Bahrain and finalising its driver line-up, which currently only includes Bruno Senna.
"I could not resist this tremendous challenge and am very excited to join forces in this new team, Kolles said.
Over the next 10 days we will review the entire operation, find the extra funding to ensure the team will make the first race in Bahrain, announce the line-up for 2010 in due time and make the operation viable under Jose Ramon Carabante's new ownership."
Despite its future now looking more secure, it appears highly unlikely that Campos will be able to run its 2010 car for the first time at next week's final pre-season test at Barcelona fellow new boys Lotus and Virgin having already entered the group testing fray at Jerez.
Friday's takeover announcement will further increase attention on the state of US F1's preparations with intense speculation in recent days suggesting the American-based team's F1 ambitions could be over amid financial difficulties.
The Serbian-backed Stefan GP team is waiting in the wings to enter the grid as the sport's 13th team should one of the new entrants fold.
