Caterham would not be at Silverstone if not for the team’s mysterious new owners.<\/p>\n
That is the claim of Colin Kolles, well-known in the F1 paddock for leading backmarker teams including Midland, Spyker and HRT.<\/p>\n
Now he has been brought in as an ‘advisor’ by Caterham’s new Swiss-Middle Eastern owners, and he promptly installed the former Minardi driver Christijan Albers as team boss.<\/p>\n
Apart from that, almost nothing is known about who Malaysian aviation entrepreneur Tony Fernandes sold the Leafield-based team to.<\/p>\n
“I suppose you probably know as much about the overall management structure and the investor as I do,” Gerry Hughes, Caterham’s track boss, admitted to reporters at Silverstone.<\/p>\n
Mystery and scepticism therefore abounds, but German-based Romanian Kolles – earlier linked with the potential new F1 entrant Forza Rossa – insists Caterham’s owners should be applauded.<\/p>\n
“I did not expect to return to formula one in this way,” he is quoted by Speed Week.<\/p>\n
“We have been working for quite a while on various projects, and then the Caterham plans suddenly took shape.<\/p>\n
“But if we had not come, Caterham would not be at Silverstone.\u00a0 We have saved this team and done Tony Fernandes a big favour.<\/p>\n
“We have made sure he can leave formula one with his head high, as without us, the racing team would have collapsed before Silverstone,” Kolles revealed.<\/p>\n
As for the investors, Kolles said there are no plans for enlightenment.<\/p>\n
“They will remain invisible,” he said.<\/p>\n
“In recent years I have had so many problems with investors who meddled too much — at Midland, Spyker, Force India and most recently the Carabante family at HRT.<\/p>\n
“This time we have people who leave those at the front to do the work, while the investors stay in the background.<\/p>\n
“The names would not tell you anything,” Kolles insisted.\u00a0 “They are Dubai and Kuwait nationals from Switzerland.”<\/p>\n
New boss Albers, meanwhile, told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he cannot rule out making changes at Caterham.<\/p>\n
But “Let us first see how this weekend goes,” he said, amid speculation Kamui Kobayashi or Marcus Ericsson’s place might be taken by Albers’ talented Dutch countryman Robin Frijns.<\/p>\n
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