MACAU GRAND PRIX

      Macau. A city and a special administrative region of China, by the South China Sea. Being a Portuguese colony for centuries, a melting pot of different cultures. A city crammed up with high rises, and being the most densely populated region in the world.

Although it being a major outpost for being a gambling city, every November, Macau boards up its streets with metal Armco barriers, red and white run-off areas and reroutes traffic to create a 6.2 km street circuit, through down town Macau.

The Guia street circuit hosts a wide array of racing categories from Touring car championships, to hosting the FIA GT cup and being the sole street circuit to hold races for both motorcycles and cars. The crown jewel of the event in November being the city holding an FIA Formula 3 championship at the street circuit.

Historically, races around the Guia Street Circuit originates from 1954 as a club race for local motoring enthusiasts, the Macau Grand Prix has evolved into what many believe is the finest street circuit race meeting in the world. The track has overseen major development in terms of track layout and safety measures and qualifying to the standards for an FIA sanctioned F3 street circuit, although being basically what is a city road through the heart of Macau. The race winner in the first year of F3 Grand Prix was none other than late Ayrton Senna who became the three time Formula One world champion later.

It is a surreal environment on race-week at Macau when cars zip around at speeds of 270km/h through shopping centers, UNESCO heritage sites, housing complexes and above the city traffic. The race is also a major tourists attraction with people flocking at Macau every November to see some dramatic racing and also to roam around Macau with its rich heritage.

The circuit consists of long straights and tight corners, the shortest width of the circuit being only seven meters. Being a street circuit, it is naturally, bumpy, scrape-y and with limited overtaking opportunities reserved for only at certain parts of the track. There’s hardly space for two cars side-by-side at certain places which tests the drivers on their patience to wait for an overtaking opportunity and not be jumpy on the throttle. Any error on the driver’s part will definitely result in their retirement from the race due to the lack of run-off areas which can be argued, makes the race more exciting. Crashes, that are often in the track, severely tests the driver’s reaction skills to be aware on how to not further be a part of the incident.

As a result, the circuit is recognised as one of the challenging circuits, demanding the driver’s optimum concentration at all times in terms of driving and turning, and maintaining the competitive pace, overtaking and negotiating hill-climbs, blind corners, downhill hairpins and long straights and maintaining that particular consistency over 15 laps.

The reward for going through the gruelling race might as well be laced in Gold. 

Macau Grand Prix had become widely known as the race of F3 champions from around the world and was one of the essential steppingstones to make their way into Formula One for the drivers. Winning at Macau is Sconsidered as a gateway to a bright future and, therefore, many young aspiring race drivers have desperately tried to grab it. However, only two drivers in the field in the 2010s – Vatteri Bottas in 2011 and Charles Leclerc in 2015—who have started this race have won a Formula One race.