Editorial
The accident-riddled but injury-free 67th Macau Grand Prix (MGP) showed our city’s resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic even though the annual motor-racing weekend needed to be held in a scaled-down version.
Luckily enough, unlike some of the other races, the helter-skelter Guia Race in particular, yesterday’s Formula 4 race –which made its local debut – proved its mettle – and local drivers Charles Leong Hon Chio and Andy Chang Wing Chung finished as its winner and first runner-up respectively. Hats off to them! Leong is only the third local MGP winner after Eduardo de Carvalho in 1954 and André Couto in 2000.
Unlike F4, which is a string of national and regional championships, F3 is a global championship. According to FIA, “launched in 2014, FIA Formula 4 has been created to offer young racing drivers around the world the opportunity to take the first step from karting into the world of single-seater racing” and designed to be a globally recognised step between karting and the F3.
Much to the dismay of diehard motor-racing aficionados, the Formula 3 (held in Macau since 1983) and Motorcycle Grand Prix (hosted by Macau since 1967) races were axed because international travel restrictions and quarantine regulations made it impossible for the racers to compete in Macau. The 67th MGP has also shown that sporting events and COVID-19 are not mutually exclusive as long as precautionary measures are in place.
No doubt, the F3 and Motorcycle Grand Prix as well as the Guia Race have grown into the signature races of the MGP, and one can only hope that vaccinations will put an end to the novel coronavirus’s shenanigans in time for next year’s event to return to its globally known format, apart from the fact that one of the MGP’s “selling points” is that it is the world’s only street-circuit racing event in which both cars and motorcycles compete.
One of the first things that I noticed when I started covering the MGP in the mid-1980s was that the local F3 was a training ground for the up-and-coming field of young drivers whose winners would pursue their racing careers in Formula 1 or other “more muscular” races and therefore would usually not return to the Guia Circuit.
The point was for Macau to produce as many rising stars in the motor-racing world as possible. And it did: Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher and his brother Ralf, Maurício Gugelmin and David Coulthard – just to name a few.
That’s why I think that MGP winners shouldn’t try a second win here in the same kind of race (they could always return to compete in another category) but give their rivals a chance to win the local crown. The more individual F3 winners Macau can produce the better for its reputation as a motor-racing event and the image of Macau as a sports tourism destination. That’s why we all should take those several days of MGP din (which awakened me each morning) and ensuing traffic jams in our stride.
For example, Charles Leong could compete in next year’s MGP F3 race (let’s keep our fingers crossed that COVID-19 will then be under control), and I could imagine that he will take the chequered flag.
Over the past three decades I have met many people during my trips overseas who knew of Macau not because of its casinos but thanks to the MGP, its F3 and Motorcycle GP races in particular. I am sure that the MPG is one of Macau’s most enduring tourist draws and for that it needs to remain a truly global event, welcoming drivers and riders from all over the world. Regional races, such as the Greater Bay Area GT Cup, are a welcome addition but their global exposure is, of course, limited.
Rob Huff tried yesterday to win the Guia Race for the 10th time. Well, apparently, he tried a bit too hard for comfort and by causing an “avoidable collision”, according to the stewards’ ruling, ended up 23rd among the 26 classified racers. Some of the other supporting races also turned out to be rather headlong. Perhaps, next time the MGP Organising Committee should screen racers’ applications more carefully…
The safety car was certainly one of the heroes of this year’s MGP.
– Harald Brüning
