Photo: ACI Sport
Paraguayan single-seater trailblazer Joshua Duerksen has decided to stay in Formula 4 for a third year, and with the same Mucke Motorsport team he contested his first two seasons with.
Duerksen first joined the team in F4 United Arab Emirates in 2019, winning five races on the way to second in the points behind current Formula 2 racer Matteo Nannini, and stayed with Mucke for his move into the European series.
He took a win and a third place on his first weekend in Italian F4, but didn’t keep up the momentum and slid to eighth in the standings, and in Germany’s ADAC championship he was 11th. Duerksen improved to sixth in ADAC F4 in 2020 and took his first two wins in the series, and won on his Italian F4 comeback but struggled on his other two outings there and came 13th.
“I am very pleased and very excited for continuing with Mucke Motorsport for another year and this time for the Italian F4 championship and we are looking forward to get very good results on track,” said Duerksen, who will contest the full season as he did in 2019.
“For sure it will be a tough challenge in another strong F4 grid of over 30 cars filled with young talented rookies and established drivers like me, but I am sure that we will be able to play a frontrunning role for the 2021 title.”
The 17-year-old is Mucke’s first confirmed driver in Italian F4, and it is yet to sign any drivers yet for the ADAC championship.
Of its 2021 F4 UAE line-up, two of the drivers have committed to other teams for racing in Europe, while Jonas Ried – who made the podium twice in his rookie single-seater campaign – plans to race in one of the European series and has tested with Mucke since the conclusion of the F4 UAE season. Recently he teased a return to Mucke on social media.