Monaco is a special race for us - Mol

The Monaco GP will of course be a big event for Spyker, as it will be the first time that the marque has appeared in the most prestigious F1 race of the year. However, this weekend is by no means the first time that the Spyker name has appeared in front of race fans on the streets of the Principality. In fact for each of the past six years the company’s cars have been a regular sight over the course of the meeting.

Keen to seek out ways of promoting the brand, back in 2001 Spyker concluded a deal with the Automobile Club de Monaco that allowed the company to undertake a very special promotion during the Grand Prix.

Every year since then two of the latest Spyker road cars have been stationed at Casino Square. Not only do they provide a highlight of the unofficial ‘supercar’ show outside the casino each evening, but during the day they actually take to the track between races and practice sessions, and are able to lap until the action starts again.

Sometimes Spyker’s lucky factory drivers run high-speed demo laps purely for show spectators what the cars can do, while on other occasions they give VIP guests or customers the opportunity to enjoy the unique experience of lapping the track.

Monaco has thus been a big part of the Spyker story. It’s not widely known that in 2001 the crew that built one of the prototypes finished their work in a truck during a 14-hour journey from England to Monaco. The car subsequently ran its very first laps on the track.

“I’m looking forward to it tremendously,” says Michiel Mol, Spyker’s Director of F1 and acting Spyker Cars CEO. “Monaco is a special race for us, for our guests, and our partners. The race itself and the atmosphere is something I always enjoy. I’ve probably been there a dozen times, as spectator or a sponsor

“We’ll have the road cars driving around on the track in between races, so that will be fun. It’s an important event for us. I think we have to show our product to the world to get buyers, and in Monaco there are very many potential buyers!

“It’s more attractive than a motor show, because a motor show only shows a static cars, and nothing beats seeing a Spyker going up the hill under full power If there had been no results, we wouldn’t still be doing it. This year it’s going to be even more successful because we can now combine the view of a F1 cars with our street cars.”

Colin Kolles is also looking forward to the race: “It’s one of the busiest weekends of the year, and for the spectators one of the nicest weekends. For us it’s a lot of work, but I think the track is fantastic, and if you are lucky, you can get some good results there. We’ll have an update for the car, and doing well there would mean a lot. Anything can happen.”

Over the years each Spyker road car has completed an average of 80 laps per race weekend. Interestingly, Sunday’s Grand Prix is run over 78 laps, and adding in the lap to the grid and the final warm-up lap brings us to the same figure. Let’s hope that’s a good omen!