Joel Eriksson continues his allegiance with Team Motopark into 2015, and will race in the first ever ADAC Formula 4 championship season for the team.
The sixteen-year-old Swede is following in the footsteps of older brother Jimmy, who currently plies his trade in the GP3 Series with Koiranen GP, who was a Motopark driver for his early career, and moves in F4 having raced his first year of car racing in 2014 in the ADAC Formel Masters championship.
Talking to The Checkered Flag, Eriksson revealed that it was somewhat a coincidence that he got into motorsport, when he and his brother followed their father into driving go-karts around for fun.
“It was basically a coincidence, to be honest,” revealed Eriksson. “My dad and some of his friends started driving karts around the haulage lot where they work. My brother tried it out first, and I had to wait for some time since I was too young.
“After a while, they went to a real karting track, and the people who were in the sport encouraged my brother to take it up for real as he’d been quite quick. He got going, and then I more or less literally followed in his wheel tracks!
“I think it’s fair to say that [my career so far has] been pretty incredible, given how it began. It was all just for fun, and I believe that’s an extremely important thing to cling on to – you should be doing motorsport because it’s good fun, and I certainly love what I do.”
Eriksson revealed he has a great relationship with Motopark, and revealed it was a natural choice for him to continue his partnership with the team into the inaugural season of the ADAC Formula 4.
“For me personally, it was always going to be the natural choice given the relationship we’ve had with the team for many years,” said Eriksson of his 2015 partnership with Motopark.
“It started off back when my brother was encouraged to try out single-seaters by his old karting boss, who knew some people in the business and introduced Jimmy and dad to a Finnish guy called Kimmo Liimatainen. He set up a test drive with Motopark for Jimmy, and they’ve been great to us ever since. Kimmo is now managing both Jimmy and myself.
“I always trust them to give 110 %, and they expect the same from me. We get along brilliantly and they are a bunch of clever people.
“I had my eyes set on F4 quite early, and we never really considered moving into F3 this year. I want to win the ADAC F4 title, and that’s what I’m working towards at the moment. Every season in a career is vital, and 2015 is no exception.”
The younger Eriksson revealed his relationship with his brother Jimmy, who will be racing in the GP3 Series for a third season in 2015, is very supportive, with both brothers wanting each other to do well.
“There is no rivalry, really – we are supporting each other and we both want the other to do well,” insisted Eriksson. “People always say that we drive in a very similar way, and that we apply the same kind of strategy to our races.
“I have learnt a lot from Jimmy, and he has sort of helped pave the way for me. I’m very thankful for that.”
