The proposed ‘Vanwall’ LMH ‘Hypercar’ from the ByKolles team has been shown in complete (but rendered) form, days, after the team showed the car with its re-branded Gibson engine, fired up.
The car though is highly unlikely to race in the FIA WEC in the 2022 season after being rejected for an entry for reasons which were initially understood to involve homologation.
DSC though now believes that there is a significant challenge to the team’s usage of the Vanwall brand, the registering of it in Germany first reported by DSC in mid-December.
Social media chatter and other online references first indicated that there was an issue with Bykolles’ usage of the Vanwall brand from another party, Vanwall 1958, a UK-based entity involved in the production of the reproduction version of the 1958 Vanwall F1 cars.
Vanwall 19658 registered the brand in the UK and elsewhere some years prior to the registration in Germany last year by ByKolles’ partner company PMC Gmbh. DSC understands that there was no prior contact with the existing company from PMC before the German trademark registration.
That issue, both in general and more detailed terms has now been confirmed to DSC by a credible source in the UK who has asserted that the brand is not owned by the Austrian-flagged team in the vast majority of relevant markets.
With the full-season entry for the LMH not accepted, and with race-by-race entries in the Hypercar class not accepted under the WEC regulations, the only remaining hope for 2022 for ByKolles would be to persuade the ACO’s Le Mans Selection Committee.
That too though is unlikely to be successful as the powers-that-be would certainly require a new car to be seen and assessed by the technical delegates at a race before Le Mans for safety and BoP purposes – and that prospect has effectively already been counted out!
ByKolles then seem to be left looking towards 2023, with or without their current branding, and their continued usage of that may not be a matter that is in their own hands!
