Macau GP | Seven manufacturers line-up for 3rd edition of GT World Cup

Pun Weng Kun (left) and Chong Coc Veng

Seven car manufacturing teams will race the challenging Guia Circuit in this year’s edition of the Macau GT World Cup, a race included in the Macau Grand Prix.

The teams representing well- known factories such as Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Honda, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche have battled to secure the best line-up of drivers for a race that aligns with the new rule of “professional-racers” only.

Consequently, the races held in Macau next month will involve a large number of famous drivers from around the world.

Marking his presence once more is two-time Macau F3 winner Felix Rosenqvist. The Swede will be attempting  to become the second driver after “Mr Macau” Edoardo Mortara to win both F3 and GT races at the 6.2km street circuit.

Rosenqvist will be making his Macau GT racing debut behind the driving wheel of the only Ferrari listed, a 488 GT3 entered by American-based team Scuderia Corsa.

In addition, Mortara, an Italian, will be pairing with another former Guia Winner, the Spaniard Daniel Juncadella, with both taking the seats of the two Mercedes-AMG GT3 from AMG Racing Academy.

The highlights are not complete without the two first cup winners, Germany’s Maro Engel and Belgium’s Laurens Vanthoor, who will be driving a Porsche 911 GT3R from Hong-
Kong based Craft Bamboo Racing.

This year’s event also marks the start of a two-year agreement with the local importer and distributer of BMW, who will be supplying the Safety, Medical and Rescue official vehicles, informed Chong Coc Veng, Coordinator Sporting Subcommittee of the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee (MGPOC) during yesterday’s press conference, which was held to announce the event’s program.

Chong also noted the strong field that will comprise the second edition of the FIA F3 World Cup. The field includes names such as Lando Norris, Joel Eriksson, Maximilian Gunther, and Callum Ilott, among others [see box]. “We hope this gathering of talent will give audiences a truly exciting race,” said Chong. However, the entry list for the F3 race includes only 22 cars in a “depleted entry list,” Autosport reported. “The field is a record low for Macau since it switched to F3 rules in 1983 – in that first year, 25 cars were hastily scrambled together, but in the 33 years since then, there have always been at least 28 entries,” the specialized media outlet reported.

The program will count a total of six racing series that will include, as previously announced by the Times, the return of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) after two years of being away from the streets of Macau.

Adding to the list of series participants, the field will also include Hong Kong’s Wong Po Wah, who will be driving a Campos Racing Chevrolet Cruze and Macau’s Mak Ka Lok, driving the Lada Vesta from RC Motorsport team.

The 51st edition of the Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix will begin with 2015 and 2016’s champion Peter Hickman who will be trying to achieve a hat-trick (three consecutive wins) in the competition where he faces eight-time winner and last year’s runner-up Michael Rutter and second-runner up Martin Jessop.

Among other front-runners returning to join the grid are Conor Cummins, Horst Saiger and Gary Johnson.

André Pires will be riding a Kawasaki ZX10R for Team Portugal and represent Portugal in this race while Macau will also continue to be represented by CF Racing Team 32 that partners with Lekka Racing Team to field the South African Allann-Jon Venter in a Yamaha R1.

As for the local races that have been announced previously their participation will be shortened and merged into one race only, instead of two.

GP merchandise showcase

In this way, the former Macau Touring Car Cup and Macau Road Sport Challenge will race only under the name of Macau Touring Car Cup, and will include a combination of cars from different specifications ranging between 1.6 and 2.0 turbocharged engines. This is a strange solution for including both local and regional racers, who might face some problems on track due to the great number of cars and difference in performance.

To minimize the potential problems, Chong noted that a pre-selection would be done through qualifying races, limiting the field to 25 participating cars from each category.

“Each group of 25 participating cars is divided for practice and qualifying. The fastest 18 in each group will enter the Sunday race,” Chong explained.

Continuing in its own race separately is the Chinese Racing Cup, a former one-brand series that aims to bring track drivers from China, Macau, Hong Kong and Taiwan together. This race has evolved as it has adopted the TCR (Touring Car Series) specifications, allowing the inclusion of several Volkswagen Golf GTI, Audi RS3 LMS and one Seat Leon, besides the Baic D50 cars.

In total, this race has listed 36 drivers, including a representative from South Korea.

Schumacher, Piquet to debut in Macau GP

Mick Schumacher, aged 18, carries the obvious legacy of his family name. The son of the former seven-time formula one world champion Michael Schumacher, Mick is currently in his rookie year in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with Prema Powerteam. The team will make its debut on the Guia Circuit racing under the Macau colors of SJM Theodore Racing by Prema that will once more field a four-car lineup. Besides Schumacher, the team comprises the already experienced Maximilian Günther and Callum Ilott, as well as the new Chinese talent Zhou Guan Yu. On the list is also a member of another famous family name, Piquet. Pedro Piquet is a Brazilian racing driver and the youngest son of three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet.

Pun Weng Kun stresses more moveable barrier gates

The president of the Sports Bureau (ID) and Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee (MGPOC) Coordinator Pun Weng Kun, said in his opening speech during yesterday’s press conference, that the event will have an additional five moveable barrier gates, bringing the number of these structures to 145.

According to Pun, “these additional gates will help improve the effectiveness of opening up the track to traffic after racing ends each day.”

The purpose, he added, is to ease congestion and minimize the inconvenience to Macau citizens in terms of transportation during the Grand Prix event.

Adding to the novelty, Pun also noted that this year, the MGPOC will continue to support the cultural and creative industries through the creation of a series of merchandizing for the Grand Prix.

Another of the new additions to the side programs is the announcement of the creation of a Macau GP Club program that will allow residents aged six and above to join and participate in several activities that include a contest for the creation of a Grand Prix mascot.

Questioned on the sidelines of the event, Pun also reaffirmed that this year’s Grand Prix will have a “similar budget [as in the] previous edition,” of about MOP200 million.

The MGPOC Coordinator also noted that a similar number of spectators to previous editions is expected; approximately 81,000, resulting in a direct income of about MOP12 million.

Questioned on the status of the ongoing repair works, namely regarding the facility that accommodates cars and teams, Pun said, “I can say that the works are almost done, I would say that they are about 98 percent [finished] and will be concluded on time.”