Raudies, Cortese, Roth, Rubatto – Louis Wolff has a long road ahead of him

The municipality of Achberg, known for its Baroque castle, lies in the south-easternmost corner of the Ravensburg district and of Baden-Württemberg, just before the Austrian border. It forms part of Upper Swabia – the triangular region between Lake Constance, the Danube and the Lech – and is the home of Louis Wolff, a young racing driver in the Moto4 Northern Cup, a feeder series for the Moto3 class, the smallest in the World Championship.

Over the past four decades, Upper Swabians have made a name for themselves in circuit racing, including world champions Dirk Raudies (125cc) and Sandro Cortese (Moto3, Supersport), two-time world championship runner-up Reinhold Roth (250 cc), and the Rubatto brothers have made a name for themselves; Supermoto world champions Bernd Hiemer and Marc-Reiner Schmidt also hail from the area, as do dirt track champions Gerd and Erik Riss, along with numerous other former world-class riders.

Louis Wolff fährt seine erste Saison mit der Honda

Foto: donnyfoto.com

In road racing, the region has produced hardly any talent in recent years; one of them is Louis Wolff. The 18-year-old finished second in last year’s ADAC Junior Cup and is now riding a Honda NSF250R in the Northern Cup for Jochen Kiefer’s team – the man behind Stefan Bradl’s world title.

Louis Wolff started out in motocross

Like many others, Wolff took his first attempts at riding on a Yamaha PW50 at the age of four; shortly afterwards, he headed to the nearby motocross track in Möggers in the Bregenzerwald for his first races. During a visit with his parents, Christian and Sabine, to the MotoGP at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, the teenager spotted an ADAC Junior Cup stand. “That’s how we realised there were entry-level series,” Louis explained during a visit from SPEEDWEEK.com. “I thought MotoGP was cool even at the age of four; I’ve grown up with it. Road racing fascinates me; it’s what I enjoy most – my idol is Valentino Rossi.”

Due to his motocross background, Wolff didn’t start out on the circuit until he was 15 – a bit late in hindsight. The switch from the KTM in the Junior Cup to the Honda in Moto4 wasn’t a walk in the park either. “This motorbike is completely different,” remarked the Achberg native. “The KTM is like a sofa; the Honda is more like a racing bike, where everything is much more direct. When you turn the Honda in, it turns in – the KTM is quite forgiving.”

I thought MotoGP was cool even when I was four.

Louis Wolff

Eight of the 14 races in the 2026 Northern Cup have been completed, and this coming weekend’s MotoGP at the Sachsenring marks a highlight for all German riders. Wolff has steadily improved throughout his first season in this class. At Brno, he set the sixth-fastest time in qualifying, but was too tense during the races and, after finishing 12th in the first race, went off the track whilst braking in the second. His best result of the season so far: 10th place in the first race at the Balaton Park Circuit in Hungary.

Using data recording for the first time

“I analyse my mistakes and try to do better,” explained the pupil at the Valentin-Heider-Gymnasium in Lindau. “I’m trying to get more in tune with the motorbike and adapt my riding style to the Honda. Working with the team and analysing the data is also new to me; in the Junior Cup we only had a lap timer. It’s quite easy to get to grips with thanks to Jochen Kiefer – he explains everything to me. But you still have to get into the swing of things before you realise what you’ve seen in the data recording, so you can then put it into practice whilst riding on the track. Before the season, I only knew the Sachsenring and Oschersleben; all the other tracks were new to me.”

Louis Wolff (li.) mit Teamchef Jochen Kiefer

Foto: donnyfoto.com

And what’s next after A-levels? “Hopefully a motorbike racer,” Louis grinned sheepishly. “I’ll try to finish school as well as I can. I don’t really have a clear idea yet of what I want to do after that. Maybe an architect or something along those lines.”