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07.10.2015 - ADAC Formel 4
Marvin Dienst: Interview with the ADAC Formula 4 champion
- Eight wins, 14 podium finishes: Marvin Dienst wins first ADAC Formula 4 championship
Title win in home race at Hockenheimring
Dienst, speaking about his future: “Winning the title in the ADAC Formula 4 certainly makes a good case for giving me a chance.”
Marvin, congratulations on your title win. Your mobile phone appears to be constantly ringing...
It’s rung and beeped so often of late, like never before. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been congratulated just on Facebook. It’s incredible how many people are pleased for me and my title win. They call me up, or send me SMS messages. I get them from people I don’t even know. The news must have spread like wildfire. I’ll have to spend some time on the phone over the next few days to thank all my well-wishers.
Many people in the paddock also wished you well after your early title win on Saturday. You’re quite well-known at the Hockenheimring, aren’t you?
Yes, my home-town of Lampertheim is practically just around the corner. At the weekend, for example, one of the marshals who also lives in Lampertheim, came up to me and asked me to sign a couple of autographs for him. That pleased me no end. Some fans even made a poster just for me and held it up high in the stands at the weekend. These special moments mean a lot to me.
You headed to the final weekend with a lead of 30 points and clinched the championship in the first race. Now tell us the truth, when did it occur to you for the first time this season that the title was in the bag?
Never! I led the championship for quite a time but could have lost the top spot at any moment. It was very close the whole season. My title rivals Joel Eriksson and Joey Mawson were always right behind me. The 30-point lead was not much when you consider that there are 75 points up for grabs in the three races per weekend. One retirement, and you’ve had it. Bagging the championship with a win in the first race was the best thing out. It took away the pressure.
Still, you had to wait until the end to be really sure. What happened?
It was a bit strange, but I can have a good laugh about it now in retrospect. My radio suddenly gave up the ghost in the first race on the last lap, so it was not until I reached the main straight and saw our team members cheering on the pit wall that I realised I’d actually won the title. You see, I didn’t know at the time where my rivals would finish.
You dropped back a little in the title fight during the first part of the season. You had a 56-point deficit on the leader before the fourth race weekend at the Lausitzring. How did you manage to stage a comeback?
I wouldn’t say that we staged a comeback. We were very strong throughout the season. We were just unlucky two race weekends in a row. That obviously had a massive impact on the points. While a 56-point deficit may sound a lot, you have to remember that 75 points per weekend are there for the taking. I missed points in four races, at the Red Bull Ring and in Spa-Francorchamps. Scoring zero was certainly a setback, but we were really on the move after that. No one is interested in the end that I wasn’t champion at the mid-point in the season.
You turned in an impressive performance from the fourth race weekend onwards. You finished on the podium nine times in ten races and took four wins. How did that come about?
As I’ve already said, we were simply very strong throughout the year. We consistently turned our performance into good results, starting with the Lausitzring. I would have liked ten podiums in a row, but I’m not complaining. Achieving four podiums on the trot at different racetracks is proof enough of how we perform. I’m a big fan of statistics. I crossed the finish line eight times as winner in 14 podiums in all. So, more than 50 percent of my podiums were wins. That’s a great haul and also shows that I could hold my own in the battle for the lead.
You achieved three lots of back-to-back wins this year but never quite managed a hat-trick...
A hat-trick was obviously the ultimate goal. I will keep an eye on the ADAC Formula 4 in the years to come to see if anyone can pull it off. It can be done, but you need a really fast car and everything has to go right because of the reversed grid order in the third race. I got close several times, like at the Sachsenring where I moved up to second position from tenth on the grid after securing two victories beforehand, which is no mean feat in this highly competitive field.
What was the highlight of the season for you?
One eighth of each of the 24 races of the season, so every one of my wins in effect. There’s no race in particular that I would wish to pick out, but the third race at the Lausitzring was pretty cool. The race was restarted for the last lap after a safety car deployment. I was in P3 at the time. I saw my chance when the two drivers in front of me ran wide in a scrap and was suddenly first. A bit strange, I know, but it was also the start of my winning streak.
ADAC Formula 4 patron Sebastian Vettel said that doing well in the ADAC Formula 4 was a strong recommendation for a move up into the higher echelons of the sport. Where do you see your future?
Either in the FIA Formula 3 European championship or in a GT series like the ADAC GT Masters. It all depends on what offers come my way first. I’ve been planning to move up to a higher class for some time and feel ready to do so. Unfortunately, the world of motor racing is quite tough for a young driver, and finding a cockpit can be tricky. Winning the title in the ADAC Formula 4 certainly makes a good case for giving me a chance. My ultimate goal is to line up in the 24-Hours of Le Mans.
