Ravetto appointed ByKolles WEC team principal

Ex-Caterham Formula 1 team boss Manfredi Ravetto has joined the ByKolles LMP1 squad as team principal for the upcoming 2018/19 World Endurance Championship ‘super season’.

The 42-year-old Italian worked at Caterham during the team’s final F1 season in 2014 and has previously had extensive involvement in a number of Colin Kolles-led projects, ranging from DTM to F1. 

Ravetto will take up his new position with immediate effect as ByKolles returns to LMP1 for 2018/19, alongside eight other privateer operations and the sole-remaining manufacturer, Toyota, in WEC’s premier class. 

ByKolles ran a single entry for the first four rounds of the 2017 campaign, before skipping the second half of the season to focus its efforts on 2018/19. 

"We look forward to the coming tasks of WEC season with enthousiasm. In particular, we perceive the Le Mans events, which will see our team this year in June entering it for the eighth time, as special highlights," ByKolles chief of race operations Boris Bermes said ahead of the upcoming ‘super season’.

"We significantly changed and improved our package in recent months and our Enso CLM P1/01 car has been provided with extensively tested updates so that we can expect to be at the top in a competition which is becoming more and more exciting.”

2014 ELMS champion Oliver Webb, who contested the opening four races of 2017 with ByKolles, has been confirmed as the team’s first driver for its 2018/19 assault.