Zele Racing

Zele Racing is an Austrian auto racing team currently competing in the TCR International Series. The team has raced in the Auto GP series claiming the series final championship in 2015.

Zele Racing
Founded2001
Founder(s)Hermann Zele
Michael Zele
Current seriesTCR International Series
Former seriesAuto GP (2012-2015)
Drivers'
Championships		Auto GP (2015)
Websitehttp://www.zele-racing.com/

History

Early history

The team was founded by father and son duo Hermann and Michael Zele to compete in the regional Interserie. The team ran Formula Opel Lotus cars for Peter Milavec and Christoph Hingartner finishing first and second in the championship standings.

The team made its professional racing debut in the 2002 World Series by Nissan season. Argentine racer Nicolás Filiberti scored the best results for the team. Filiberti's best result was a fourth place at Circuito del Jarama and ended twelfth in the series championship. Receiving sponsorship from Austrian asset management firm Superfund Group the team returned in the series for 2003. The team scored mixed results with one podium finish for Norbert Siedler. Siedler finished fifteenth in the series standings as the best Zele Racing driver. Christiano Rocha scored podium finishes in the Euro Formula 3000 series, the later Auto GP, in 2004.

Zele Racing was in charge developing the stillborn Formula Superfund series. The series was intended to start for the 2005 season racing the Force 10 SF01 car replacing the Italian Formula 3000 championship.[1] Patrick Lemarié tested the car at Estoril. Lemarié had a heavy crash and the series was therefore suspended indefinitely.[2]

Between 2007 and 2012 the team focused on the Interserie, EuroBOSS and BOSS GP series. In 2010 the team won the final season of the original EuroBOSS series. The team's drivers Damien Charveriat and Andreas Zuber each won two races of the season that was canceled after four races. The drivers ran Dallara GP2/05 chassis, previously used in the GP2 Series until 2008.

Motopark Academy
See also: Motopark Academy

Zele Racing and Motopark Academy entered a partnership for the 2008 Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup and the 2008 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. Michael Zele supported Motopark Academy with race engineering services. In the Northern European Cup Motopark Academy drivers Valtteri Bottas and António Félix da Costa finished first and second in the championship standings. The Eurocup drivers were less successful.

Epsilon Euskadi
See also: Barazi-Epsilon

Michael Zele was the race engineer for Stéphane Richelmi in the 2009 British Formula Three Championship racing with Barazi-Epsilon. Richelmis best result were two twelfth-place finishes. Zele also supported the team at the 2009 1000 km of Spa, the second round of the 2009 Le Mans Series. The team finished the race fourth in the LMP2 class with their Zytek 07S/2. However the car did not comply with technical regulations and was disqualified.[3]

Auto GP

The Austrian racing team returned to the professional racing circuit in 2012 entering the Auto GP series.[4] During their inaugural, 2012, season the team entered seven different drivers over their two cars. Giacomo Ricci and Sergio Campana scored the best results for the team, both with a third-place finish. Ricci scored the podium finish at Marrakech while Campana scored his podium finish at Sonoma.

In 2013 the team started the season with reigning FIA Formula Two champion Luciano Bacheta and former Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan. Bacheta delivered the first race win, at Marrakech. Karthikeyan left the team after the Hungarian round. Karthikeyan felt frustrated with mistakes by the team during pitstops and technical preparation.[5] Bacheta left the team after four rounds to focus on a possible GP2 Series move.[6] Christian Klien replaced Bacheta for Mugello, along with Tamás Pál Kiss.[7] The team did not race until the final round at Brno.

Tamás Pál Kiss remained for the majority of the 2014 season, winning at Paul Ricard. At Imola Kiss came in for a pit stop without the team knowing, this cost the Hungarian valuable points.[8] After the difficult Imola weekend Kiss did not return with the team. The team stated financial difficulties as the reason for his absence.[9]

The creation of the Formula Acceleration 1, which uses the same car as the Auto GP, caused both racing grids to shrink. This continued for the 2015 Auto GP season. At the start of the season the two championships had the intention to merge, but this did not come to fruition. The 2015 season opener fielded only eight cars, three of which entered by Zele Racing. With only seven cars at the second round of the championship, the remainder of the season was canceled. Antônio Pizzonia had the best results and was unofficially crowned champion. The series was revived for 2016, but again with very small grids. After the first round of the season the championship merged with BOSS GP.[10]

Motorsports results

Complete World Series by Nissan results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Italian F3000/Auto GP results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete TCR International Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References
  1. "Formula Superfund presents the SF01". Crash.net. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  2. "F3000: Start Formula Superfund uitgesteld". Autosport.nl. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  3. "OAK Racing promoted to the podium after Spa disqualifications" (PDF). Scapa. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  4. "Zele Racing targets Auto GP commitment Auto GP keeps attracting more and more interest as Austrian Team Zele-Racing is ready". Automobilsport. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  5. "Narain Karthikeyan leaves Zele Auto GP team". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  6. "Zele Racing and Luciano Bacheta part". Zele Racing. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  7. "Christian Klien returns to open-wheel racing". Speedcafe. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  8. "Unlucky weekend for Zele Racing". Zele Racing. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  9. "Zele racing ahead of maiden home race". Zele Racing. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  10. "Dorrbecker the best driver with Auto GP car in the Boss GP Championship at Assen". Auto GP. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
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