Tales from the Spielberg paddock

• Joey Mawson extends lead on Mick Schumacher
• Three lights-to-flag victories at Spielberg
• Preining and Laaksonen both take first wins of their ADAC Formula 4 careers

Spielberg: The ADAC Formula 4 staged its first meeting of the season outside of Germany’s borders from July 22nd to 24th. The winners of races 13, 14 and 15 of the ADAC High Speed School were decided at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.

‘Half-time’ champion Joey Mawson (20, Australia, Van Amersfoort Racing) secured 52 points in the three races with a win, a P3 & P4 and extended his lead on Mick Schumacher (17, Germany, Prema Powerteam, 208 points). The son of the record Formula 1 world champion really showed his class in the second race where he moved 22 places up the field from P33 and only just narrowly missed the points by placing eleventh. Local driver Thomas Preining (18, Austria, Lechner Racing) and Simo Laaksonen (17, Finland, Motopark) achieved the first wins of their ADAC Formula 4 careers. Mawson can now take a lead of 46 points with him to the next event at the Nürburgring (5th - 7th August). In the team classification, Dutch outfit, Van Amersfoort Racing, replaced Kerpen-based US Racing-Team led by Gerhard Ungar and ex-Formula 1 and DTM driver Ralf Schumacher at the top of the standings.

Swapping single-seater racing car for football boots: Mick Schumacher showed his fine form at the Red Bull Ring just this weekend, but now the son of Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher is directing his focus to the football field. On Wednesday (July 27th), the 17-year-old ADAC Formula 4 driver will participate in the ‘Champions for Charity’ benefit match in the Mainz Opel Arena. Germany’s biggest sports channel, SPORT1, will broadcast the match live at 19.00. Mick Schumacher has been diligently practising his dribbling and has trained hard to look good in the game, in which ADAC Formula 4 patron Sebastian Vettel and World Cup champion Lukas Podolski will also star. Schumacher, Vettel & Co will play for the ‘Nazionale Piloti’ against the ‘Dirk Nowitzki All Stars’ with basketball superstar Dirk Nowitzki. Famous sports stars including boxing champion Henry Maske, discus champion Lars Riedel and ski-jump world champion Sven Hannawald will play for the side along with Podolski.

Returnees and newbies: ADAC Formula 4 fans welcomed the return of an old friend this weekend. Janneau Esmeijer (19, Netherlands), who is well-known from the premiere season of the ADAC High Speed Academy, was racing for the first time under the banner of Team Timo Scheider at the Red Bull Ring and immediately notched up his first success by placing seventh in the second race. “We’ve got an experienced man on board, who is very fast and has helped us greatly,” said team principal and DTM driver Timo Scheider. Sebastian Fernandez Wahbeh (16, Venezuela, RB Racing SA) drove his first kilometres in the ADAC Formula 4. The South American even finished in the points straightaway in the second race.

Distinguished guest from Pirelli: Ernesto Garcia Domingo visited the ADAC High Speed Academy races at the Red Bull Ring in his role as Motorsport Business Director at Pirelli, ADAC Formula 4’s exclusive tyre partner. He then presented the trophies at the awards ceremony and congratulated the victorious pilots.

Birthdays, cakes and presents: Many of the ADAC Formula 4 drivers had good reason to be cheerful both on and off track – there were lots of birthdays to celebrate. There were presents and cakes on Thursday (July 21st) for Diego Ciantini (Argentina, Jenzer Motorsport), who turned 18, for Kim-Luis Schramm (Germany, US Racing), who celebrated his 19th birthday, and Thomas Preining, who took a win on Saturday to mark his 18th birthday and had a small celebration with his family and barbecue with the team. Plus, ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Jannes Fittje (Germany, US Racing) was 17 on Friday (July 22nd), and Michelle Halder (Germany, Liqui Moly Team Engstler), who was back for the first time after a long break, will celebrate her birthday on Monday (25th July).

Choosing between books or racetrack: No testing? No problem for Sophia Flörsch (15, Germany, Motopark). The 15-year-old ADAC Sports Foundation protégée would like to have practised more in between the meetings at Oschersleben and the Red Bull Ring, but a tight schedule packed with exams at her grammar school in Bavaria put a spanner in the works. Nevertheless, Flörsch finished in tenth place, securing a point in the third race, and is still the best-placed female driver in the ADAC Formula 4 line-up. But once again, there’s no time for testing before the next race in two weeks’ time. “We’ll have to see how things go at the Nürburgring. The speed is there. We now just have to turn it on in qualifying,” said the Motopark driver.

Some like it hot: There was no chance of the junior formula racing drivers taking a break because of the heat despite air temperatures in excess of 30 degrees Celsius on average and track temps of around 40 degrees for the three races. Teams set up paddling pools to cool down in between the motorhomes parked in the paddock. The heat was not an issue for rookie Lirim Zendeli (16, ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg eV). In the run-up to Spielberg, he had spent a few days holiday with his family in Macedonia where temperatures above 40 degrees are not uncommon.