Shareholder denies Kolles headed to Williams

Williams shareholder Christian ’Toto’ Wolff has played down reports Colin Kolles’ next destination might be the famous British team.

It has emerged that, with HRT now making plans for the future by strengthening its technical and management team, the Spanish team’s Romanian-born German boss is set to step down.

Some specialist reports have suggested former Force India chief Kolles, whose Greding headquarters is effectively HRT’s technical base at present, could move on to Williams.

"Colin is a friend of mine," Austrian Wolff, who is the largest Williams shareholder after Sir Frank Williams, is quoted as admitting to German website motorsport-total.com.

It is believed Kolles has in the past been engaged privately by Wolff in various business capacities.

"If I was ever involved in a company that needed a great fireman to rescue it from collapse, Colin would be my man," he said. "But we are absolutely not in that situation at Williams."