Macau steps down to Formula 4

 Volkswagen at Macau Grand Prix with the Golf GTI TCR and Formula 3 - automobilsport.com

The annual post-season speedfest around the streets of Macau has a huge question-mark hanging over it.

Not only is Covid casting a long shadow over the storied race, but the organisers have decided to step down from Formula 3 and more recently the bigger FIA F3 cars to run the smaller, slower and much simpler Formula 4.

That’s F4, which was never in prospect in New Zealand and fell over in Australia.

It breaks the unbroken heritage of F3 at Macau that goes all the way back to 1983 and the days when Eddie Jordan came hunting fresh talent there. Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher, Juan-Pablo Montoya, all these and many who later starred in Formula One have raced or won here in Formula 3.

I was there in 1996 to see Irish driver Ralph Firman win the feature race ahead of Massimiliano Angelelli and Jarno Trulli. Nick Heidfeld won the ‘qualifying’ race on the Saturday.

It was an epic weekend, though we were actually there for the touring car race, filming Gianfranco Brancatelli in a Petronas Mondeo.

I wonder how the F4 cars will look after the magnificent madness of F3 around those merciless streets, edged in ancient stone and modern Armco.

Described by one former competitor as Formula Ford with wings (I also know a Kiwi racer who calls if Formula Noob!) the smaller F4 cars will certainly get around the 6.12 km street circuit’s tight dimensions better than regional F3 or FIA F3 cars. The circuit's minimum width is only seven metres and the narrow bits are found where the twisty up-down, left-right bits are. This, after all, is recognised as one of the most challenging circuits in the world

Entry speed into corners, terminal speeds down Macau’s handful of decent straights – all will be lower, and the usual track-blocking shunts at Lisboa will either not happen or be amplified out of all proportion to the significance of the event.

The latter is of course up to the drivers, and the switch to F4 will bring the abilities of a younger clutch of aspirants to the fore.

So the question is, who will go?

Macanese driver and 2017 Chinese Formula 4 champion Charles Leong is considering a return for this year’s Macau Grand Prix. Simple enough for him, no border lockouts to get in the way.

Are there Aussie single-seater aces able to bust the border and go race? Are Kiwis lining up?

Not much point Marcus Armstrong or even Liam Lawson going. Armstrong won the Italian F4 Championship in 2018 and was second in the German F4 Championship the same year.

Lawson's already done F4 and at Macau he clawed his way from 20th to seventh in 2019, the last year of F3. He's now a bit coy on what to do next year - fifth in the new FIA F3's an okay but not exceptional end to the year, but it all costs money, doesn't it? A trip to Macau doesn't have the same cachet when it also involves a step down to a simpler, slower car.

F1600 racer Billy Frazer? Money, money money...

The 2020 Macau Grand Prix takes place on November 20-21-22.

www.fiaformula3.com/Latest/4Ot3OX5IpNI7zmKhok5cJD/lawson-coy-on-2021-plans-as-he-awaits-decision-on-where-he-will-go-next

 

 

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