When you’re used to seeing NASCAR shoving matches or…whatever it was…that happened in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Gateway, other shouting matches can seem a bit tame. Sure, sometimes Max Papis gives or takes a slap and maybe Sebastien Bourdais has no love lost for Paul Tracy, but the open-wheel world of post-crash antics seems a bit weird. Take this crash in ADAC Formula 4 competition at Hockenheimring in Germany last weekend. Swedish driver Oliver Söderström in the orange car appears to cut off Robin Brezina in the red car, sending both into the gravel and/or wall on the outside of the corner.
After Brezina struggles mightily with the restraint systems in the car, he decides he needs to settle score with Söderström so Brezina takes off toward the Swedish driver’s car at a full sprint through the gravel trap. The gravel trap. The pit of gravel designed to slow moving things down. Brezina nearly faceplants but persists and Söderström makes a run for the safety of corner workers. It’s all a bit strange, really, and makes John Wes Townley look like a gold-medal Olympic wrestler. The best part of this, probably, is the marshal waving the yellow flag and laughing at both drivers scrambling through the gravel trap.
If it all looks a bit like teenage drama, that’s because it is. Formula 4 is a junior series, typically one step up from karting for aspiring racers. Both Söderström and Brezina are 18 years old and like any other sport, junior series in racing are designed to teach both racecraft and, after a year or two, some maturity. Hopefully, these two can leave this bizarre-o world chase scene behind and make a bid for a seat up the rung of the sprawling junior series ladder in Europe.
THe guy who ran away looks wuss on the video, but in reality, he did the right thing. If he would have engaged in a fight, he could have hurt his future chances at a sponsor and a developed a bad reputation.
He is not struggling with restraints he is trying to put the removable steering wheel back in place, It’s a VERY BIG no no to get out of the car and not replace the wheel huge fines involved.