There has been a flurry of social media posts from the ByKolles/ Vanwall camp in the past few days with the now complete ‘Vanwall’ Hypercar, built to the LMH ruleset, shaking down at a Zweibrücken Airport in Germany (pictured above).
So far so good. The Gibson V8 powered car is an attractive beast and the test, judging by an interview with test driver Christophe Bouchut by our friends at Endurance Info, went well – So what next?
Firstly there seems little chance of the car racing in the FIA WEC in 2022, the team’s entry was rejected for ‘homologation issues’, we’ll come back to that shortly.
In addition race by race entries in the top class are not permitted and whilst the FIA World Motorsport Council have granted a waiver to allow LMDH factory cars to enter on a race-by-race basis later this year (as part of the test, development and BoP establishment process), it is DSC’s understanding that no such waiver is currently in place for LMH cars – and to allow that to happen there would need to be a separate waiver put in place by the FIA WMSC.
Then there’s the 600lb Gorilla in the room, the matter of whether ByKolles have a legitimate claim to the ‘Vanwall’ brand that the car currently sports.
That appears to be an issue at the heart of the matter for the WEC. Allow the car to race and there is the prospect of significant legal intervention from the UK-based parties that are entirely certain that they own the trademark, having obtained, in good faith, the rights to the name in its native UK and indeed, it seems, across the EU, a decade ago, a matter which DSC understands is contested by German Vanwall trademark ‘owner’ PMC Gmbh, a company hard-wired to the ByKolles outfit.
That matter was complicated by the fallout from Brexit, and online resources in the public domain suggest that there is a current process underway to determine the matter by the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office).
If ByKolles fail in that process their car could well be unable to run as a Vanwall anywhere in Europe.
In those circumstances, a successful application to enter the FIA WEC is unlikely under the car’s current name.
Whether or not there are any further homologation hurdles to be dealt with would be a matter beyond that.
So, for now, watch this space!
All pictures copyright ByKolles
