The 67th Macau Grand Prix will be cut from four to three days with a total of five races being held from November 20 to 22, the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee announced yesterday in a press briefing.
This year’s headliner is Rob Huff, who has won the Guia Race nine times and is the sole foreign driver, outside of Asia, in the race this year. Huff is set to complete a two-week quarantine prior to the race, along with 36 other racers and team members.
The British racer will join teammates Rodolfo Ávila and Zhang Zheng Dong in the fight for the 2020 TCR China title.
This year’s races are the Formula 4 Macau Grand Prix, which is for cars from the Chinese Formula 4 Championship and also considered as the series’ 2020 season finale; the Macau GT Cup, which is open to both GT3 and GT4 cars for the first time; and the Macau Guia Race for Asian TCR drivers.
With a budget of 220 million patacas, president of the Sports Bureau Pun Weng Kun explained that the budget had already been reduced further from 270 million patacas.
“Whether the race runs for three or four days, there are things that must be done such as repaving of the racetrack because it involves safety. There is indeed no room to reduce the expenses of things like this,” Pun told the press.
“Regarding the ticketing, we are confident that this year, the occupancy will not be bad, but only later there will be confirmed situation regarding the ticketing.”
The ticket prices have remained unchanged, ranging from 50 patacas to 1,000 patacas, depending on the day and on the location of the spectator seat.
Pun is confident about the number of spectators this year. This year’s seating capacity was reduced to 10,000 from the usual 14,000 to practice social distancing measures.
Meanwhile, the press conference presented a video of FIA president Jean Todt who said that the FIA main world cups such as the F3, GT and WTCR will return in 2021.
“The unprecedented health crisis meant that this 67th Macau Grand Prix will be very different,” said Todt.
“The FIA F3, GT and touring world cup races usually produce memorable races and I can’t see these returning to Macau in the future. I believe all FIA status world competitions will return to Macau in 2021.”
The Times had reported in September that the 54th Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix was at serious risk of being canceled as many of the racers who were invited to participate in this year’s event had confirmed that they would not be returning to Macau under the conditions outlined by the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee.
Meanwhile, the 67th Macau Grand Prix Car Show will be held at Tap Seac Square from November 14 to 15, aside from the Grand Prix Family Carnival which is to be held this weekend.
This year’s Grand Prix is the first large sports tourism project to take place in the SAR after the Covid-19 situation has stabilized.
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