ADAC Formula 4 at the Nürburgring: Home race for Schumacher’s US Racing CHRS

• Ralf Schumacher’s outfit leads all three championships
• Leader Pourchaire: “It’s incredibly important to be consistent”
• Niklas Krütten expecting great support – friends and family coming from nearby Trier

Munich: The ADAC Formula 4 youngsters hardly have time to catch their breath before the next competitive outing. Just one week after the contest at Zandvoort, the fifth round of the campaign is due to take place at the Nürburgring. It is a home fixture for US Racing CHRS, the team owned and managed by Ralf Schumacher and Gerhard Ungar, and the start of the final run-in to the title. SPORT1 will be showing the races from the ADAC Formula 4 weekend on TV. They can also be watched online via SPORT1.de, adac.de/motorsport, youtube.com/ADAC and on the Facebook page of ADAC Formula 4.

Ralf Schumacher, ex-Formula 1 and DTM driver, has competed more times than he can remember on the Nürburgring. He is now busy passing on his experience to up-and-coming young drivers. And the results of his work are plain to see: last year, the team performed a clean sweep of all three championship titles. The overall champion was Lirim Zendeli and the winner of the Best Rookie trophy was Ralf Schumacher’s son, David. In the team championship too, the Kerpen-based outfit were unbeatable.

This year, things are once again looking good, as the team leads in all three classifications. The US Racing CHRS squad are therefore quietly confident and highly motivated going into their home race. “It’s gone well so far,” says current championship leader Théo Pourchaire (15, France, US Racing CHRS). “The race weekend at Zandvoort was perfect for me. My opponents made mistakes and dropped points. I avoided risk and scored quite a few points in the process.”

In fact, Pourchaire notched up so many points that his lead over closest pursuer Arthur Leclerc (18, Monaco, US Racing CHRS) has widened to 29 points. The great strength of the French teenager is his consistency. In ten of the eleven races so far, Pourchaire has finished in the Top Ten, the only exception being the first race at the Red Bull Ring where he came twelfth. “It’s incredibly important to be consistent,” says the 15-year-old. “That’s how I’ll be approaching the race weekend at the Nürburgring.”

The two Van Amersfoort drivers Dennis Hauger (16, Norway) and Niklas Krütten (16, Germany) are 45 points behind Pourchaire and are waiting for an opportunity to pounce. “There are still enough races left in which to close the gap,” says Krütten with an eye to the remaining nine rounds of the 2019 season. “I’m pretty relaxed and not putting myself under a lot of pressure. I’ll obviously be trying my best to win and score as many points as possible, but I also know that I am very fast this year. So far, though, I’ve had a bit of bad luck here and there, which has stopped me translating good pace into results.”

For Krütten too, this is a home race, as the Nürburgring is only a one-hour drive from his home town of Trier. “Friends and family will be coming along, and it’s obviously nice to have that level of support,” says the 16-year-old. “The historic circuit in the Eifel is in any case the place where I secured my first ADAC Formula 4 victory in 2018, which gives me an extra motivational boost.”

Another Van Amersfoort Racing driver with something to prove is Sebastian Estner (17, Germany). He pulled off an impressive lights-to-flag victory in the Sunday race at Zandvoort, thereby rewarding his Dutch team with a home win. After this maiden win, Estner is aiming for further podium glory. “The victory gave me a lot of confidence,” says the 17-year-old, whose brother Andreas also competed in a previous ADAC Formula 4 season. “We had good pace at Zandvoort and, thanks to the reverse grid rule, I was able to start from pole and retain the position through to the finish.”

In the Best Rookie classification, Roman Stanek (15, Czech Republic, US Racing CHRS) has established a clear lead. In the team classification, US Racing CHRS are currently first ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing and Prema Powerteam. “We want to do well in our home races, of course, and score a lot of points,” says championship leader Théo Pourchaire. “However, the main target is and remains the title.”