Talented youngsters on the way up: Fifth season of ADAC Formula 4 about to get underway

• Arthur Leclerc, brother of Ferrari Formula 1 shooting star Charles Leclerc, joins the ADAC Formula 4 line-up
• Calendar highlight: Back on the Formula 1 support programme at Hockenheim

Oschersleben: Talented youngsters with the shared ambition of a career in motorsport, the brother of Ferrari shooting star Charles Leclerc and a standout fixture on the weekend of the German Formula 1 Grand Prix at Hockenheim are just a few of the ingredients for the fifth ADAC Formula 4 season which promises to be as action-packed, thrilling and varied as ever. The campaign gets underway later this month on the weekend of 26th - 28th April at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The races from the High-Speed Academy will be shown on free-to-air TV channel SPORT1. In addition, they will be streamed live via Facebook, YouTube, sport1.de and adac.de/motorsport.

"We are pleased to confirm that there will once again be an international field of contestants for this year's ADAC Formula 4, which emphasises the excellent reputation of the series and is a vindication of our many years of successful work in promoting junior formula racing," says ADAC Sports President Hermann Tomczyk. "Drivers such as Mick Schumacher and Lando Norris who started out in ADAC Formula 4 have now arrived in Formula 1 or in the Formula 1 environment. I'm really looking forward to the 2019 ADAC Formula 4."

A well-known name features in the list of series newcomers. Arthur Leclerc from Monaco, the 18-year-old brother of F1 shooting star Charles, will be contesting ADAC Formula 4 for the first time this season. He has signed for reigning team champions US Racing CHRS led by Ralf Schumacher and Gerhard Ungar, where he joins three other newcomers - Roman Stanek (Czech Republic), Théo Pourchaire (France) and Alessandro Ghiretti (France).

ADAC Formula 4 welcomes a new team this year: the French outfit R-ace GP is about to make its debut in the German series with a driver squad of Grégoire Saucy (Switzerland) and Laszlo Toth (Hungary). They join the already established teams Van Amersfoort Racing from the Netherlands, ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. from Berlin and Prema Theodore Racing from Italy on the grid.

Competing for Van Amersfoort Racing will be ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Niklas Krütten (Germany) who finished runner-up in the rookie classification last time, Ido Cohen (Israel), Lucas Alecco Roy (Monaco) and Dennis Hauger (Norway). ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg e.V. will be represented by the trio of Nico Göhler (Germany), Joshua Duerksen (Paraguay) and Nico Gruber (Austria). Carrying the flag for Prema will be Ferrari Junior Gianluca Petecof (Brazil), Oliver Rasmussen (Denmark), Paul Aron (Estonia) and Alessandro Famularo (Venezuela). Aron and Famularo will be driving only in selected races.

The 2019 ADAC Formula 4 extends over seven race weekends at venues in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. The standout event is the weekend of 26th - 28th July when ADAC Formula 4 shares the billing with the German Formula 1 Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

You can find the complete ADAC Formula 4 grid in the attached PDF.