Red Bull Juniors Edgar and Crawford duel for the ADAC F4 Championship, Van Amersfoort Racing poised to take team title
It is a duel that has dominated the whole season, and it is about to culminate on the final weekend at Oschersleben (6th - 8th November) - Jonny Edgar (16, England) versus Jak Crawford (15, USA), two Red Bull Junior members of the Van Amersfoort squad in pursuit of the ADAC Formula 4 title. Edgar goes into this last fixture of the campaign leading the championship table by a 23-point margin and as clear favourite, but Crawford remains undaunted. So everything is set for a riveting conclusion to the sixth season of the ADAC High-Speed Academy. Racing at Oschersleben will go ahead without any spectators in attendance to comply with the biosecurity measures agreed between the ADAC GT Masters and the relevant authorities. Free-to-air TV channel SPORT1 will be showing the races from the High-Speed Academy, and they can also be watched online as a livestream on SPORT1.de, YouTube.com/adac, the Facebook page of ADAC Formula 4 and on adac.de/motorsport.
"I aim to give my best in all three races, and then the championship will be decided by Jonny's results," says Crawford, who feels comfortable in the role of challenger. He goes into the championship decider as the one without the weight of expectation on his shoulders. Furthermore, current form suggests that the Texan has momentum on his side: the 15-year-old has won two of the last four races, while Edgar came away winless from the Lausitzring last weekend and posted a couple of mediocre results for the first time this season.
On the other hand, Edgar is the master of his own destiny. However, he knows that he cannot afford any major blunders: "I don't have to fight too hard. As long as I finish ahead of Jak or directly behind him, everything should be fine. I'm hopeful of having a good weekend, and I'm absolutely determined to bring the title home." If Edgar does indeed 'bring the title home', he will be the fifth driver in the sixth year of ADAC Formula 4 to go on from winning the first race of the season to later also lift the championship trophy. The only exception came in 2019 when Theo Pourchaire won the title after Brazil's Gianluca Petecof secured victory in the opening race.
The strong performances from Edgar and Crawford have also ensured that Van Amersfoort Racing are poised to claim their first ever title in the team classification. There is still a mathematical chance that the Dutch outfit could be caught by US Racing. But in any case, the Germans from Kerpen, who finished both the 2018 and 2019 seasons as treble winners, have already had their moment of glory this year, with ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Tim Tramnitz (15, Hamburg), wrapping up the Best Rookie classification last weekend with two races to spare.
The youngster from Hamburg is fifth in the general classification, while the best-placed driver of the US Racing contingent is Elias Seppänen (17, Finland) The Finnish teenager also theoretically has a chance of winning the championship. However, with a deficit of 47 points to make up on the championship leader, Seppänen is dependent on slip-ups by the two Van Amersfoort drivers. In an ideal scenario, 75 points could be scored for a clean sweep of victories in the three races to be contested next weekend.