After a few years without a new name in Macau’s motorsport scene, Macau seems to be back on track, with its new racing talents displaying quality and skills at the Chinese F4 Championship.
A 16-year-old who goes by the name of Tiago Rodrigues has been taking the category by storm.
It is hard to imagine that just three months ago, Rodrigues was making his debut in the formula category on the Zhuhai circuit for the first race of the 2023 season.
Coming from the local Karting scene with no racing experience with formula cars, Rodrigues did not seem daunted by the new challenge and, even if he were facing more experienced racers, he quickly started to soak in as much information as possible and learn more with each lap.
Of no surprise, results started to appear right from Round 1 in Zhuhai, when Rodrigues scored three 5th position finishes and his first podium (in Race 3).
If the first weekend seemed good, the best was yet to come when the F4 paddock moved to Ningbo in late June.
After an outstanding performance, Rodrigues took three wins and one third position finish, scoring 90 points out of a maximum possible of 100 in this weekend.
Good performances continued to come over the last weekend, with Round 3 being raced at the Pingtan Ruyi Lake International Circuit.
Over the weekend, Rodrigues continued to show strong qualities, scoring four podiums and one win on Race 10 of the championship coming from eighth position in the grid.
The results have put Rodrigues on top of the drivers’ championship table, with a total of 205 points now that 12 races have been held from a total of 18.
The championship moves now to Tianfu International Circuit in Chengdu for another quadruple round in October before the season finale, which will take place at the Guia Circuit in Macau with two double-header races with double points to be attributed.
The championship also counts the participation of another two local racers, Cheong Man Hei and Chui Ka Kam, who despite showing some positive results are far from the performance displayed so far by Rodrigues, being respectively 17th and 18th in the championship.
Inheriting the number 8 from former champion Andy Chang at Champ Motorsports, Rodrigues is well-positioned for an amazing rookie year.
