Pun Weng Kun, president of the Sports Bureau (ID) and coordinator of the Macau Grand Prix Organising Committee, said yesterday that the International Automobile Federation (FIA) had full confidence in Macau’s capabilities of organising international motor races.
Pun made the remarks during a press conference about the 64th Macau Grand Prix, at the Macau Science Centre yesterday.
This year Macau will host three major events, including two FIA World Cups – the FIA Formula 3 World Cup and the FIA GT World Cup, and also the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), which will return to Macau after an absence of two years.
During his speech, Pun read a statement the committee had received from FIA Secretary General Peter Bayer.
“In the world of motor sport, the Macau Grand Prix is very special. This year it has become the only motor race meeting in the world to simultaneously host three major events…for all three to occur within one race meeting on a circuit that comes to life only once a year is remarkable and it is indicative of the faith that the world governing body of motor sport places in the organisation of the Macau Grand Prix…the Macau Grand Prix has been a great motor racing spectacle on a circuit which, even compared to somewhere like Monaco, is truly unique and admired by enthusiasts worldwide for its challenges and its triumphs,” Pun quoted the FIA secretary-general’s statement as saying.
According to Pun, Bayer also pointed out that Macau has been the proving ground for drivers who went on to become global motor sport greats, including Ayrton Senna, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Mika Häkkinen, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher.
A new generation of drivers is coming to Macau this year too. Among them is Mick Schumacher, the son of seven-time Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher and nephew of former Formula One driver Ralf Schumacher. The 18-year-old German racing driver will have his Macau debut in the FIA Formula 3 World Cup next month.
Michael Schumacher won the 1990 Macau Grand Prix. His brother Ralf won the local F3 race in 1995.
Austria’s Ferdinand Habsburg – a member of the Austro-Hungarian imperial dynasty – will return to the local F3 race after 2016 when he did not finish.
Mick Schumacher, fellow German Maximilian Günther, Callum Ilott of Britain and China’s Zhou Guanyu will join this year’s line-up of SJM Theodore Racing by Prema.
The 51st Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix line-up will include 2015 and 2016 winner Peter Hickman, eight-time local champion Michael Rutter, who finished second last year, and Martin Jessop who finished third.
When asked by a reporter about the post-Hato repair work at the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal carpark, which traditionally has been used for parking the racing cars before and during the Grand Prix, Pun said the work was “98 percent or 99 percent” finished. He added that the repairs would not have any negative impact on this year’s Grand Prix which will take place on November 16-19.
The carpark was affected by severe flooding during Typhoon Hato’s August 23 onslaught.
Pun Weng Kun, president of the Sports Bureau (ID) and coordinator of Macau Grand Prix Ogranising Committee, speaks to reporters after the 64th Macau Grand Prix press conference at the Macau Science Centre in Nape yesterday. Photo: Joel Chu
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