The annual Formula Three extravaganza on the streets of Macau returns
this weekend, with 2011 winner Daniel Juncadella returning to bolster an
already mouth-watering entry list. James
Newbold looks at why the Macau Grand Prix is still one of the most coveted
prizes in motorsport.
Here’s a trivia question for you:
what does BTCC fan favourite Rob Austin have in common with inaugural Formula E
champion Nelson Piquet Jr. and Mercedes F1 team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico
Rosberg? Twelve years ago, in November 2003, this promising bunch of
up-and-comers were among a 30-car entry gunning for the 50th
anniversary Macau GP. Through the carnage, it was rookie Nicolas Lapierre – an
unassuming 11th in the F3 Euroseries – who gleefully stood atop the
podium, but only after a puncture caused Japanese F3 champion James Courtney to
skate into the wall with a just a few laps to go.
Since the meteoric rise of Max
Verstappen, interest in Formula Three has reached an all-time high, so where
better than Macau – whose mixture of long straights and low grip, blind
sweepers of varying gradients in the mountain section present a unique
challenge in modern motorsport – to spot the next great talent?
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| Mortara is the only double-winner of the event in 2009 and 2010 (Edoardo Mortara). |
Only Edoardo Mortara has won the
event twice, although this year a returning Daniel Juncadella – a regular in
the DTM with F1 testing experience under his belt – and last year’s winner
Felix Rosenqvist, also the reigning FIA F3 champion, will be hoping to emulate
the Italian they call ‘Mr Macau.’
Macau Maelstrom
There’s good reason why Mortara
stands apart from the rest in the Macau history books – it’s a very difficult event
to win. As you might expect from a one-off event at the end of the season –
make or break time for drivers with uncertain futures – the formbook goes out
of the window, with only that man Mortara in 2010 managing to win both the European
championship and Macau in the same season.
Success is earned only through
inch-perfect precision and canny race-craft; crash out of Saturday’s qualifying
race and you will be relegated to the back of the grid on for the main event on
Sunday, leaving no chance to make up the ground lost – even if your name
happens to be Vettel or Verstappen.
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| Verstappen set Fastest Lap on his only visit to Macau last year (Autoblog.nl) |
Even if you do manage to get a
clean start and survive the first lap dash to Lisboa on cold tyres, drivers
still have to navigate another 14 laps without making a mistake, all the while
knowing that a Safety Car will leave you vulnerable to attack on the restart. And
as Marco Wittmann proved in 2011 – leading the entire race before being
shuffled backwards at a late restart – having the fastest car is no guarantee
of victory.
“It’s one of those where if you
get into the lead of the pack, it’s not a given that you’ll be able to pull
away and win,” says BMW-contracted GT ace Alexander Sims. “At most circuits
it’s fairly tough to get close enough behind to overtake, but at Macau it’s the
other end of the spectrum. The straights are long enough to pick up a tow, and
you can look to overtake into Lisboa pretty much every lap if you’re vaguely
close to the car ahead.
“Any Safety Car leaves you an
absolute sitting duck, which again makes Macau fairly unique because not always
the fastest guy wins – it comes down to luck and a rub of the green for things
to go your way.”
Rite of passage
Yet whilst lady luck can be an
invaluable asset – Mike Conway was the chief beneficiary in 2006 when the
leading trio of Paul di Resta, Marko Asmer and
Kamui Kobayashi tangled down at Lisboa – as Sims points out, there isn’t a
single dud name on the winners list.
“The winners each year might not
necessarily be the next F1 World champion, some will, some won’t, but to win it
you’ve got to show some degree of quality about you.”
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| da Costa counts his 2012 victory as the best of his career (GEPA Pictures) |
2012 winner Antonio Felix da
Costa ultimately missed out to Daniil Kyvat for the second seat at Toro Rosso
in 2014, but has since gone on to become a race-winner in the DTM and in
Formula E, which require fundamentally different driving styles.
“When you look at all the heritage and the history of the event, to have
my name up there with guys like Senna, Schumacher and Coulthard is pretty
special, definitely the most special win of my career so far,” says da
Costa, who also finished second to
Alex Lynn in 2013. “I don’t really believe in lottery, you still need to
drive that car to the maximum. Macau only happens once a year, it’s a one off event that doesn’t count towards
any championship, so you have to deliver in those 15 laps and can’t make any
mistakes.”
“Any driver who can win Macau can
be quick in everything else,” agrees Audi GT star Laurens Vanthoor, who
finished second to Mortara in 2010. “When you look at the winners and people on
the podium they’re all well known, there is barely a name on the winners list
who is unknown or unsuccessful afterwards.”
Quite apart from an exceptional
list of winners that includes Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and David
Coulthard, the great and good of world motorsport have used Macau as a proving
ground on their way up the ladder, including a young Mika Hakkinen, who tangled
with Schumacher on the final lap in 1990, Sebastien Vettel, who finished third
on his debut in 2005 and Robert Kubica, whose performance the same year so
impressed BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen that he hired the Pole for the
following season. A good showing at Macau isn’t a prerequisite for a successful
career, but it certainly helps.
“I think certainly if you look at
the list of winners at Macau it’s a very impressive list, and people definitely
take notice,” says Nissan’s Harry Tincknell. “They wouldn’t drop down from GP2
or World Series or wherever to have a crack at it if they didn’t think it was
worth winning, and to me it was definitely the greatest race I did until Le
Mans.”
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| Kubica earned himself a BMW F1 contract after finishing second in 2005 (Tumblr). |
“It’s
one of those races where at the end of the year, the European, the Japanese,
the British, all of the top F3 drivers come together to race at Macau, so it’s
very cool to prove yourself against such tough opposition,” adds Conway, now a
Toyota LMP1 driver. “Macau is a great one to win because it can get talked
about for a long time afterwards; you can have a difficult season, then win
that one and it sticks in everyone’s memories, so to win the British
championship and Macau in the same year couldn’t have gone much better.”
Unique challenge
“Macau
can take a couple of years to master, but it’s a really cool track,” continues
Conway. “Because of the long straights, you need to take most of the downforce
off, which makes the car feel quite light around the twisty bits. You’ve got to
really get comfortable with being close to the walls – and brushing them at
times. It can bite you pretty quick, so sometimes you don’t see the right guys
at the front because maybe they’ve pushed it too hard in practice or in
qualifying and haven’t got all the laps done.”
“I don’t think there is a circuit
that is comparable to Macau; it’s one of only a few tracks in the world that
are a real challenge for drivers,” adds Vanthoor. “When you’re looking back on
your career, you have to go to Macau one day and experience it. I’m not
convinced that a lot of drivers who race only on F1 tracks learn the same
things as when you’re driving on these types of track – if you go to Macau,
then you will know what a real track is!
“You have to know when to be
brave – it’s a track where you rarely do every corner 100% on the limit because
it’s so difficult, one mistake and you end up in the wall. The most important
thing there is driver confidence, which you build up over the weekend ready for
qualifying. On your first time there you think ‘this is absolutely all I can
give’ and when you look at the times you find you’re still four seconds off the
pace…”
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| Vanthoor also has Macau experience in GTs (Autosport.be) |
Sims is returning for a sixth
crack at the race this year with Double R Racing, but concedes that experience
is no guarantee of success.
“It’s what you make of it
really,” says the Briton, who first raced at Macau in 2009. “There are a few
bits and pieces that with experience you understand the way the track evolves
and understand when the time comes to push, because it’s very difficult to
attack every lap of the weekend like you would on a normal race-track, but as
with all races you have rookies that get on top of it straight away.”
Those who instantly click with Macau
are certainly worth watching in more powerful machinery, as besides a lack of
circuit knowledge, they will have little – if any – prior experience of being a
part of a headline event, which comes with its own unique pressures.
“The first time you go there it’s
unbelievable,” says Tincknell. “There’s a lot of press over there, it’s a big
step up from the regular European championship because beforehand you were
always supporting DTM or something else, you definitely notice the attention. It’s
a bit different with all the razzmatazz on the grid, and a lot of people can
get sucked into the sense of occasion and end up not delivering on the track,
but you just have to try and soak it up and stay focused on what’s going on. Sunday
night you can have a bit of fun in the after-party and everything, but until
then you’re there to do your job.”
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Whilst an unfortunate clash with
the GP2/GP3 meeting at Bahrain has prevented the returns of those with
unfinished business – 2013 FIA F3 champion Rafaelle Marciello could have done with
reminding everybody of his talent after failing to kick on in his second season
of GP2, while GP3 title contender Esteban Ocon, who beat Verstappen to the F3 crown
last year, was denied a shot at victory after tangling with Tom Blomqvist – the 62nd Macau GP features a healthy entry list featuring two former winners and a few stars of the
future. The Motorsport Journal assess the contenders.
The
contenders:
1. Felix Rosenqvist – Prema Powerteam
The most experienced man in the
field, defending event winner and now with the F3 title he has always craved. The
Swede has traditionally always gone well round here and theoretically has the
best package at his disposal, but since when did that count for anything?
2. Jake Dennis – Prema Powerteam
The Racing Steps Foundation-backed
racer has been Rosenqvist’s lieutenant this year and will go into 2016 as one
of the favourites once Rosenqvist (surely) moves on. A former winner of the BRDC
Autosport Young Driver of the Year, Dennis will be aiming to emulate fellow
Brit Alex Lynn’s efforts here in 2013.
3. Nick Cassidy – TOM's
Cassidy finished a fine third
last year for Three-Bond, although was rather fortunate to do so with deranged
suspension. The Kiwi won the Japanese F3 title this year and impressed in his
two outings in Europe with Prema this year. Undoubtedly a dark horse.
4. Antonio Giovinazzi – Jagonya Ayam with
Carlin
The Italian was a valiant second
in points to Rosenqvist this year, but looks to have his future mapped out for
him with Volkswagen after making his DTM debut in Moscow for Audi. The
Mercedes-powered Prema cars are likely to have the ultimate edge on Macau’s
long straights, but anything less than a podium would be a disappointment.
5. Charles Leclerc – Van Amersfoort Racing
In the car vacated by the
F1-bound Max Verstappen, Leclerc was one of the revelations of the season
before a mid-season dip in form that considering his tender age, should hardly have come as a surprise. Should he remain in F3, the Monegasque will likely be up
against Dennis for the title next year and could do worse than staking an early
claim on his first trip to Macau.
6. Dani Juncadella – Fortec Motorsport
Wildcard number one. The Spaniard
himself will admit that he was fortunate to win in 2011 when the race finished
behind the Safety Car, and will be itching to add a ‘normal’ win to his résumé
after a tough year in the DTM. Crashed out on his last visit in 2012.
7. Alexander Sims – Double R Racing
Wildcard number two. Mightily unfortunate
not to win a second British GT title on the bounce, BMW-contracted Sims is as quick
and experienced as they come – this will be his sixth visit to Macau – but all will depend on whether Double-R, winners with Mike Conway in 2006, are
at the races. 
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