Zele Racing

Zele Racing
Company type	Motorsport team
Industry	Auto racing
Founded	2001
Founder	Hermann Zele, Michael Zele
Headquarters	Austria
Area served	Motorsport championships including BOSS GP, Auto GP, Super Formula support
Products	Racing teams and technical support services

Zele Racing is an Austrian motorsport outfit presently active in the BOSS GP championship, collaborating closely with HS Engineering. The team claimed victory in the last independent Auto GP title in 2015 and has provided technical support to Super Formula squads including Nakajima Racing, B-Max Racing, and B-Quik Absolute Racing within the Thailand Super Series.

Founding and Early Years

Established by Hermann and Michael Zele, the team initially competed in the regional Interserie series, operating Formula Opel Lotus vehicles. Drivers such as Peter Milavec and Christoph Hingartner achieved first and second places in the overall standings.

Zele Racing made its professional debut in the 2002 World Series by Nissan, where Argentine driver Nicolás Filiberti secured a best race result of fourth at Circuito del Jarama and finished twelfth in the championship. Backed by Austrian investment firm Superfund Group, the team returned for the 2003 season, earning a podium finish with Norbert Siedler, who ultimately ranked fifteenth in the points. In 2004, Christiano Rocha attained podium results competing in the Euro Formula 3000 series, which later evolved into Auto GP.

The team was involved in developing the now-defunct Formula Superfund series, slated for launch in 2005 featuring the Force 10 SF01 chassis as a successor to Italian Formula 3000. However, following Patrick Lemarié’s serious accident during Estoril testing, the project was indefinitely halted.

Between 2007 and 2012, Zele Racing concentrated on competitions such as Interserie, EuroBOSS, and BOSS GP. They secured victory in the final EuroBOSS season of 2010, with drivers Damien Charveriat and Andreas Zuber each winning two races before the season was cut short after four rounds. The team campaigned using former GP2 Series Dallara GP2/05 chassis.

Collaboration with Motopark Academy

In 2008, Zele Racing joined forces with Motopark Academy to provide race engineering support in both the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup and Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. Within the Northern European Cup, Motopark drivers Valtteri Bottas and António Félix da Costa finished first and second respectively in the championship standings. Their performance in the Eurocup was less distinguished.

Involvement with Epsilon Euskadi

Michael Zele took on race engineer duties for Stéphane Richelmi during the 2009 British Formula Three Championship with Barazi-Epsilon. Richelmi’s top results were two twelfth-place finishes. Additionally, Zele supported Epsilon Euskadi at the 2009 1000 km of Spa (Le Mans Series), where the team initially placed fourth in LMP2 but was later disqualified due to technical infringements.

Return to Auto GP

In 2012, Zele Racing re-entered professional motorsport by competing in Auto GP, fielding two cars across seven drivers throughout that season. Giacomo Ricci and Sergio Campana each achieved podium finishes—Ricci at Marrakech and Campana at Sonoma.

The following year, their lineup included FIA Formula Two champion Luciano Bacheta alongside former Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan. Bacheta won the opening race at Marrakech. Karthikeyan exited after Hungary due to frustrations over pitstop mistakes and mechanical problems. Bacheta departed after four rounds to focus on GP2 opportunities; he was replaced by Christian Klien and Tamás Pál Kiss. The team then took a break until returning for the final round at Brno.

In 2014, Tamás Pál Kiss remained for most of the campaign, securing victory at Paul Ricard. However, a pit stop error at Imola cost him crucial points; subsequent financial issues prevented his continued participation.

The introduction of Formula Acceleration 1—which utilized similar machinery to Auto GP—led to diminishing grid sizes throughout 2015. An anticipated merger between these championships did not materialize, resulting in a starting field of only eight cars—three representing Zele Racing—and cancellation of events after round two due to insufficient entries. Antônio Pizzonia recorded the best results and was unofficially declared champion. Although Auto GP resumed briefly in 2016, it merged with BOSS GP after just one round because of ongoing low participation numbers.

Complete World Series by Nissan results

(legend) (Races shown in bold denote pole position) (Races in italics represent fastest lap)

Year	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Position	Points
2002	18	Template:Country data ARG Template:Namespace detect showall Nicolás Filiberti	VAL 1 5	VAL 2 7	JAR 1 DNS	JAR 2 4	ALB 1 Ret	ALB 2 8	MON 1 8	MON 2 7	MAG 1 Ret	MAG 2 16	BAR 1 18	BAR 2 12			CUR 1 12	CUR 2 12	INT 1	INT 2	12th	32
	18	Template:Country data IRE Template:Namespace detect showall Damien Faulkner													VAL 1 13	VAL 2 9				26th	2
	19		VAL 1 11	VAL 2 12	JAR 1 17	JAR 2 Ret												-	Template:Country data ITA Template:Namespace detect showall Ivan Bellarosa				ALB 1 12	ALB 2 13	MNZ 1 Ret	MNZ 2 13	27th	0
		Template:Country data AUT Template:Namespace detect showall Walter Lechner Jr									MAG < br > 1 < br >< small >15 < / small >	MAG < br > 2 < br >< small >8 < / small >							24th ! 3
		Template:Country data SPA Template:Namespace detect showall Rafael Sarandeses											BAR < br > 1 < br >< small >Ret < / small >	BAR < br > 2 < br >< small >Ret < / small >	VAL < br > 1 < br >< small >10 < / small >	VAL < br > 2 < br >< small >Ret < / small >				16th ! 17
		Template:Country data BRA Template:Namespace detect showall Jaime Melo														CUR < br > 1 < br >< small >15 < / small >	CUR < br > 2 < br >< small >10 < / small >	INT < br > 1 < br >< small >5 < / small >	INT < br > 2 < br >< small >Ret < / small >	20th ! 9
		2003	14	Template:Country data AUT Template:Namespace detect showall Norbert Siedler	JAR < br > 1 < br >< small > Ret </ small >	JAR < br > 2 < br >< small > Ret </ small > ...

Full Italian F3000/Auto GP Results

(key) (Entries in bold denote pole position) (Entries in italics signify fastest lap)

Year	Car No.	Driver(s)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	16	Final Position	Points
2004	18	Template:Country data BRA Template:Namespace detect showall Christiano Rocha	BRN 6	EST Ret	JER Ret	MNZ 2	SPA DNS	DON 3	DIJ	ZOL 3	NÜR	NÜR		8th	15
2004	19	Germany Sven Heidfeld	BRN 8	EST Ret	JER	MNZ	SPA	DON	DIJ	ZOL	NÜR	NÜR		17th	0
2012	8	Template:Country data ITA Template:Namespace detect showall Giacomo Ricci	MNZ 1 6	MNZ 2 14			MAR 1 5	MAR 2 3						11th	40
		Template:Country data ITA Template:Namespace detect showall Matteo Beretta			VAL 1 17	VAL 2 13							24th	0

Full TCR International Series Results

(key) (Entries shown in bold represent pole position) (Entries in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Car No.	Driver(s)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Final Standing	Points Accumulated
2017	55	Template:Country data HUN Template:Namespace detect showall Ferenc Ficza	RIM 1 2	RIM 2 13	BHR 1	BHR 2	SPA 1	SPA 2	MNZ 1	MNZ 2	SAL 1	SAL 2	HUN 1	HUN 2	OSC 1	OSC 2	BUR 1	BUR 2	ZHE 1	ZHE 2	YMC 1	YMC 2	5th	21

References