“If you have two Red Bull cars, you have kind of a magnet in between them and they always come together at a regular rate!”
Motopark head Timo Rumpfkeil is giggling at his year running both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda in the 2019 Euroformula Open series, where they clashed horns five years before they would be at war again, this time for the spot alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull in Formula 1.
That magnetic draw has “been following me from 2004 when we had our first Red Bull cars [Motopark ran Scott Speed to Formula Renault Eurocup glory that year],” explains Rumpfkeil. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s team-mates or not. Obviously, with the pressure and what’s at stake from Red Bull, they tend to give each other a little bit less leeway than they would other competitors since they are the first measurement against each other.”
The advent of the two youths – Lawson had just turned 17 when the season took off, Tsunoda was 18 – at this level occurred amid volatile politics in European single-seater racing.
With Red Bull protege Dan Ticktum, Motopark had narrowly lost out to the might of Prema and Mick Schumacher in the battle for the 2018 FIA Formula 3 European Championship crown, the last year for that series before it was axed, with the FIA handing over the F3 title to Bruno Michel’s F1-supporting GP3 Series.
When the 10 teams from GP3 and European F3 were picked for the 2019-21 term, it came as something of a shock when Motopark missed the cut.
So the team had to keep on with its old apparatus. European F3 had been pushed, at the insistence of the FIA, by Formel 3 Vermarktungs, a subsidiary of the DTM-organising ITR. And Gerhard Berger, as president of the ITR, moved on along with F3V boss Walter Mertes with plans to continue organizing a DTM support series for the old F3 cars under the banner of Formula European Masters.
Simultaneously, Spanish organizer GT Sport opened up their Euroformula Open series, which heretofore had run the identical Dallara F3 chassis but with spec Toyota engines, to let in the Spiess and HWA-built powerplants that had raced in European F3 with badging from Volkswagen and Mercedes respectively.
Further, the Formula Regional European Championship has been launched for 2019 — in direct rivalry with the long-standing Formula Renault Eurocup. So, as well as the new FIA F3, there were four European championships fishing in the same pool of participants between Formula 4 and Formula 2.
Honda-supported Tsunoda had won the 2018 Japanese F4 Championship and been put onto the Red Bull Junior programme. Lawson had finished runner-up in German F4 with Van Amersfoort Racing, and the Dutch team had selected him as the driver it wanted for Formula European Masters.
But then he went home to New Zealand to contest the Toyota Racing Series during the European winter and, to the chagrin of VAR founder Frits van Amersfoort, those performances brought him onto the radar of Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who had an association with the Rumpfkeil family dating back decades.
Tsunoda’s transaction was done in December 2018. And then, adds Rumpfkeil, “I was actually skiing when Helmut called me and asked if I have another seat available, because they took Liam on board and at the time Van Amersfoort was still pushing for getting him in the team.” That was done in February, before a few weeks later “it was clear that the championship of Gerhard would not happen, and we moved over to the Euroformula Open”.
Formula European Masters was terminated in mid-March with just six drivers signing up — three at Motopark. That pool of drivers wasn’t big enough, especially because Euroformula Open (EFO) featured much more F1-standard tracks on its calendar than FEM could boast as a DTM support series.
“The calendar and the car are the two strongest assets of the championship,” claims Rumpfkeil, whose team headquartered at the eastern German track of Oschersleben continues to dominate EFO. “It is all European F1 tracks current or recent, and back in the day in 2019 we had the Michelin tyre, which for me was the best product, but everybody now is in love with the Pirelli [now used in EFO] because that’s what they’re going to use in F3 and F2 later on, so all fine with me.
“And obviously the car, which is the old F3 DNA – a very aero-efficient car, very good suspension, brakes, very light and nimble, and it’s teaching the driver the right values. If you look at all the people in Formula 1 and performing well in sportscars, they [almost] all went through the original F3 school.”
After their Motopark deals were done, both Tsunoda and Lawson also acquired seats in FIA F3 with Jenzer Motorsport and MP Motorsport respectively, meaning they would be moving from one machine into another during the course of the season. That also had a knock-on effect on their chances in EFO according to FIA F3’s sporting restrictions.
“For both, you have to say that we were a bit limited, because we couldn’t do any testing really,” explains Rumpfkeil. “The FIA F3 regulations limited that, because if you were to do the double programme as they have done, you would only be allowed to join the official testing [in EFO], not the private tests. In reality, Liam got into the vehicle for the first time on the Thursday at Paul Ricard site of the first round, and Yuki I think completed the official test in Barcelona, so we didn’t have a lot of running.
“Both of them were quick from the go, which is always a very good parameter if you have somebody stepping up to the F3 car, because guys who take 10 days to get up to speed, it will normally be difficult in their career. individuals who enjoy the more grip and the aero right from the outset, they are the individuals that have the skills to develop farther in their career trajectory towards Formula 1.
“Wherever they went, I think the EFO programme benefited the F3 quite a lot, because for Yuki it was a bit of track learning but also more running in the European environment, which as we all know is very different to Japan. And there were a lot of things he needed to learn, like not yelling on the radio!”
As Rumpfkeil has already stated, there were disagreements between the Red Bull duo. Lawson convincingly beat Tsunoda to win in the initial race at Ricard, before they crashed in the second race at the French site, for which the Kiwi was penalized by the authorities. On the fourth race weekend at Spa, a collision at Les Combes eliminated both.
“The crash at Spa was definitely on Liam’s side where he caused it, but it would have been easy to avoid from Yuki,” says Rumpfkeil. “I very well recall that day because I had a long discussion with them, and what Yuki didn’t understand was… Is it Japanese pride? The way he looked at it: it was his corner, his line. But he would still be ahead of Liam if there had been no collision and he would have given him more room. Which he didn’t have to do, but it would have been smarter than insisting on his spot on the track.
“So there were a lot of things they needed to learn. For Liam it was the largest chance for him. For Yuki, having the Honda backing, I think he was a bit more relaxed and secure. For Liam it was a lifelong opportunity and it still is, and he wanted that extra bit, but sometimes, as we all know, when you do the extra bit it may be too much.”
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That was also highlighted in another incident for Lawson on the Pau street circuit. He was following Motopark team-mate Julian Hanses — an unappreciated driver who eventually ventured into sportscars – for the lead of the Pau Grand Prix on a rainy circuit, with both on slick tyres. But Billy Monger, who had plunged into the pits for wet-weather rubber, was closing quickly.
Lawson then made a move into a tiny chicane that, for most of the year, is a mini-roundabout for road traffic. The outcome was two Motopark vehicles in the barriers, and a spectacular triumph for Monger.
“We all know how hard it is to pass in Pau, and I don’t recall that anybody ever passed in that spot!” Rumpfkeil exclaims. “Simply there is no way two cars can fit there. That was the impatience and the desire to do something extra-good and that plainly backfired.”
Alongside the misfortunes, Lawson won four races: as well as the Ricard opener, he prevailed in the Saturday race in Pau, put in a brilliant performance in the rain at Barcelona to grab victory from ninth on the grid, and then robbed Tsunoda in the last race of the season at Monza.
On the Italian track, the Japanese had stormed from eighth in the starting line-up into a commanding lead, only to be jumped by his stablemate during a late safety car restart. That meant just one EFO triumph for Tsunoda, at Hockenheim.
Despite both drivers missing two of the nine events — the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone – owing to FIA F3 conflicts, Lawson placed second in the overall standings and Tsunoda fourth.
But here’s the surprise. Even had they contested all nine events, they would never have overhauled the points of another Motopark driver, who even skipped the Silverstone round himself in order to make his Formula 2 debut, but has never been regarded as a single-seater ace and now plies his trade in the LMGT3 class of the World Endurance Championship in a United Autosports McLaren.
Motopark didn’t have a team in the European championship at the time, and Verstappen moved instead to the Van Amersfoort squad with which his father Jos had made his first car-racing steps. But Motopark did field him in the one-off Masters of F3 event at Zandvoort – which, unsurprisingly, he won.
“I honestly believe that Max is ahead of everyone at the moment, and that’s not limited to those two Tsunoda and Lawson,” is Rumpfkeil’s perspective. “I think it’s the toughest benchmark you can get, the toughest job you can have, and it will be interesting to see how they cope with that.
“None of them can be eye to eye with him on a consistent basis – that’s clear and you need to grow, because Max had his share of troubles and mistakes he’s done, which is always part of the way. But he wasn’t so much under the scrutiny at that time, but these drivers both are, and it will be fascinating to see how much patience they have.”
