The curtain-raiser is just a few days away, and a new season of ADAC Formula 4 is about to start. This coming weekend (31st July - 2nd August), the Lausitzring will be hosting the first three races of the campaign in parallel with the 2020 ADAC GT Masters. Every weekend, SPORT1 will be showing at least one race live on free-to-air TV, and the action can also be followed on SPORT1+. All races are available online as a livestream with German and English commentary on SPORT1.de, youtube.com/adac and adac.de/motorsport.

Ex-Formula 1 and DTM driver Ralf Schumacher and his business partner Gerhard Ungar are once again aiming for the treble, namely the drivers', Rookie and team championships. US Racing have already won all three titles on two previous occasions - 2018 (champion: Lirim Zendeli; Best Rookie: David Schumacher) and 2019 (champion: Theo Pourchaire; Best Rookie: Roman Stanek). In the 2020 season, Tim Tramnitz (15, Hamburg), Vlad Lomko (15, Russia) and ADAC Sports Foundation protégé Elias Seppänen (16, Finland) have been tasked with emulating their predecessors.

Also lining up for US Racing in the season opener will be Oliver Bearman (15, Great Britain). The Junior European and World X30 Kart Champion posted the absolute fastest time during the official tests two weeks ago and is now set to contest the first race weekend on behalf of the Kerpen-based outfit.

Gerhard Ungar is expecting an eventful season for the youngsters in his squad: "With us having been so successful last season, everyone's expectations are obviously very high. We have a good team and a highly motivated quartet of young drivers. Anyway, I'm sure we are going to see some great wheel-to-wheel action and racing here."

Co-principal Ralf Schumacher concurs: "After at least ten months away from racing, we are now all happy that the 2020 ADAC Formula 4 is finally good to go, and we are proud to be once again fielding four cars in the season opener. In the 2020 ADAC Formula 4, the grid is again very strong in terms of quality. It's certainly going to be a challenge once more, but I think the team and our drivers are well prepared for the campaign ahead."

Also attracting lot of attention in the tests were Van Amersfoort drivers Jonny Edgar (16, England) and Jak Crawford (15, USA) who likewise set fastest times several times during the sessions. "The tests were good, and I'm feeling confident," said Edgar, who even sees room for improvement: "There are a few places on this track where I can still gain time." Series newcomer Crawford, who like Edgar is a member of the Red Bull Junior team, has also already demonstrated that he is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the ADAC High-Speed Academy.

In the case of Team ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg e.V., all hopes are pinned on Joshua Dürksen (16, Paraguay) who is the only contestant to have competed in ADAC Formula 4 last season. As third-best rookie in 2019, Dürksen is aiming to exploit his prior experience of the series to challenge for the overall title this time. Starting alongside him in Peter Mücke's team is rookie Josef Knopp (16, Czech Republic).

R-ace GP from Fontenay-le-Comte in France have a trio of teenagers on their books: Victor Bernier (16, France), Artem Lobanenko (19, Russia) and Kiril Small (15, Russia). The two Russian youngsters will be targeting the 2020 Best Rookie title, as will Josef Knopp (ADAC Berlin-Brandenburg e.V.) and the US Racing duo of Tim Tramnitz and Vlad Lomko.

The start of the first race on Saturday is at 14:45 CEST. Races two and three follow on Sunday at 11:15 and 15:30 CEST. Racing at the Lausitzring will take place in the absence of spectators in accordance with the officially approved biosecurity measures drawn up by the ADAC GT Masters.