FIRST VICTORY FOR HOLSTEIN

The fourth challenge for the Swiss championship title ended with the first success of Christoph Holstein, who profited from a collision of the two leading Felix Hirsiger and Michal Smidl and secured the first prize money of 5000 francs. Smidl finished second and Besnik Murtezi won the third prize. "I feel sorry for Felix", Murtezi said after the jury's decision to move Hirsiger to 4th place as a result of a remover to Smidl.

The attraction of the day was the Czech professional Michal Smidl. Thanks to 193 centimetres he stands out with his body length like Hirsiger and Holstein and also has the posture of a wrestler. Accordingly, it was difficult for him to switch to the narrow modern cockpits in Cham: "If I had a little more room, the times would probably be even better," he says. The strong vibrations were also new for him: "In our racing class only the steering wheel and pedals vibrate - in Formula V the feedback comes from the whole cockpit". He describes the conditions in the Formula V simulator as "very close to reality".

Despite the unusual conditions, the 24-year-old Czech mixed up the field right from his first attempts: In practice it set the fastest time, in the race he delivered Felix Hirsiger, who started from first position, a thrilling duel that only ended after the collision. His ambitions remain correspondingly high: "I'll be back, I want to win the championship".

The «genius»

Stefan Varga especially likes to hear this. The Slovakian managed to sign Smidl as driver for his "Varga-SimRacing-Team". Varga and Smidl know each other from the international online championnats: "We got to know each other as competitors and are now friends," Varga says. He is deeply impressed by Smidl in every respect: "No matter which steering wheel he holds in his hands, Michal always sets the standard. He is a genius".

So it goes without saying that everyone in the Varga team works for the star - including the equally committed second Czech, Tomas Doleze: "He is responsible for Michal's technical support - in terms of setup, computers and software," explains Varga.

The 5000 Swiss Franc victory check is a special incentive for drivers from Eastern Europe. But Michal Smidl, who received the "Magic Michael" takeover from an English reporter, has won even bigger prizes. As overall winner of the Virtual-GP-Championnat he got a Mercedes last year - and the chances are good that his fleet of cars will be supplemented this year by another noble vehicle.

First of all, however, he wants to keep up the pace in Formula V - to the delight of team boss Stefan Vargas: "E-Sport is in an enormous growth phase. And we wanted to jump on the train with our team before it really started.