The 69th Macau Grand Prix (GP) may return to its original four-day format (Thursday to Sunday) this November, the president of the Sports Bureau and coordinator of the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee (MGPOC), Pun Weng Kun said yesterday on the sidelines of a Macao Sports Council meeting.
The same official also hinted at the possibility of the motorcycle race returning the event headliners after a two-year absence due to entry restrictions on foreign racers to Macau.
“Our plan [for this year’s GP] is still the four-day event and we forecast that it will include seven [different] racing events. We hope that with a four-day event we can attract tourists to Macau to enjoy the whole event and stay for around six to seven days,” Pun said.
Pun said that the return of the motorcycle race is not 100% confirmed, noting that the MGPOC is still negotiating the details for the return of this race.
“The organizing committee wants to have this race back and the racers also want to come,” Pun said, suggesting that the main obstacles to the event’s return had been addressed.
In a concurrent topic, Pun noted that the easing of restrictions on the entry of foreign nationals from 41 countries to Macau since the start of this month will allow organizers to have better negotiating power when approaching foreign racers and other athletes who can potentially participate in other major events that will take place this year. These events will include the 3×3 Basketball, the Macau International Marathon and the World Table Tennis (WTT) event, among others.
“We know that some racers were available to undergo a quarantine period of two weeks [in the past] so now with the 7+3 measure I think we have a better chance of negotiating with them,” Pun said. Furthermore, “Our policies already allow the entry of foreigners, but we still need to follow the quarantine rules. If there are sportspeople who have already entered the mainland from other places, they can potentially enter Macau without quarantining according to the rules. But we need to analyze these on a case-by-case basis. As a general rule, they need to undergo quarantine if they arrive from medium and high-risk areas. We need to follow these guidelines because our main principle while organizing these events is safety.”
The coordinator of the GP committee also noted that all the committee members “are doing a great job and trying their best to have quality events this year and ensure that high-level racers can make their return to the GP entry lists.”
Due to the aforementioned restrictions, the format of the GP was reduced to three days (Friday to Sunday) over the past two years. The number of racing events was also reduced to five or six events resulted in two categories – that had previously been merged – being split to expand the racing action.
70th “special “edition already in preparation
Questioned on the milestone of the 70th local Grand Prix slated to take place in 2023, Pun said that a ‘special edition’ is already being planned. However, at present there are no concrete ideas on what this event will include.
“There isn’t a concrete idea yet but we are already planning and preparing this 70th edition. We are thinking that maybe we can have some different races using different types of vehicles,” Pun said, adding, “We are already negotiating with different entities. We know that for this year, we cannot organize the three world cups [FIA World Touring Car Cup, FIA GT World Cup, and FIA Formula 3 World Cup]. We do not have much to announce at the moment but I can say that we are negotiating [for the return of these three racing events in 2023].”
