The Formula 4 (F4) South East Asia (SEA) is preparing to race in Macau for the first time this November, replacing the F4 Chinese Championship which has performed the role for the last three editions since 2020, the championship promotor, Top Speed, has announced.
According to the same Shanghai-based promoter, the Macau race will be by invitation only and outside of the championship.
Starting in 2016, the F4 SEA Championship ran until 2019 with events in Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, India and Malaysia before being canceled due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
Now, the promoter, Top Speed, is using its experience organizing F4 championships such as F4 UAE and Formula Renault Middle East Championships to revive this series in a championship that, so far, has only three rounds confirmed besides the Macau weekend.
The F4 SEA is scheduled to start in the last weekend of October in the neighboring city of Zhuhai with the first three races taking place from Oct. 27 to 29.
Participation in the Macau GP as a support race will follow on Nov. 11 and 12, and is expected to be a qualification race and final race to take place at Guia Circuit.
After this “special event,” the championship moves to the Malaysian circuit of Sepang for the last two rounds taking place, respectively, on the last weekend of November and the first weekend of December.
For the time being, three major names of the Asian junior formula championships have already been listed to participate in the championship, including the Zhuhai-based local team Asia Racing Team (ART) and Hong Kong-founded BlackArts Racing and the Philippines’ Eurasia Motorsports, which joins the UAE-based R2Race Cavicel.
New-gen F4 cars might weight the choice
According to information collected by the Times from sources familiar with the decision, the choice to run the F4 SEA in the Macau GP, instead of the Chinese F4, is based on the fact that the SEA series will, for the first time, use the Tatuus F4-T421, a second-generation chassis (with safety halo), something that the cars used on the Chinese F4 (Mygale) do not possess.
The F4 SEA also uses the Abarth 1.0L Turbo engine, which is technologically more evolved and updated than the cars in use in the Chinese championship.
The Tatuus F4-T421 is also the car chosen to run this year’s launched F1 Academy series, an all-female single-seater racing championship founded by Formula One, featuring Filipino Bianca Bustamante.
Macau racers’ hopes to race at home damaged
The most significant impact of this change affects the three local racers currently disputing the Chinese F4 Championship.
Tiago Rodrigues, current championship leader, as well as Marcus Cheong and Chui Ka Kam, see their hopes of racing at home in the major motorsports event of this part of the world severely harmed.
