How a much-changed Macau GP kept the party going

I'm not normally one to a wear a hat - unless it's a woolly one to keep out the cold - but this week I'm raising metaphorical headgear to the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee for keeping its event, of which last weekend's running was the 67th edition, alive through the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

The Macanese government immediately introduced very strict measures to control the spread of the virus, with the result that its population has been COVID-free for months and was very little affected even in the early period. But the knock-on effect of that was quarantine measures that meant any visitor had to spend 14 days in a hotel room before even being allowed out into the rest of the hotel, let alone the streets.

Therefore the traditional Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix, fought out by the category since 1983, was gone for 2020, ditto the GT World Cup, and likewise the Macau Guia counting for the World Touring Car Cup. The quarantine measures had made it simply impossible logistically for international teams to travel to Macau.

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Those three headlining events did run last weekend, but with a very local flavour compared to what the appreciative Macanese crowd is used to, and in a way that took the event back to its formative years of the 1950s. Instead of F3, the Macau Grand Prix doubled up as the final round of the Chinese Formula 4 Championship; the GT Cup had a GT4 class added to the usual GT3 field; and the Guia counted as the finale for the TCR China series.

But even the quarantine measures couldn't keep a good man down, and Macau addict and 2012 World Touring Car champion Rob Huff went through his hotel isolation regime in order to bid for his 10th Guia win at the wheel of an MG 6.

To be fair, the F4 field acquitted themselves pretty well, and after an early safety car the race ran uninterrupted to the finish. Macanese youngsters Charles Leong and Andy Chang - both of whom have contested the F3 GP - remained close throughout, especially when a backmarker delayed Leong on the penultimate lap. That Chang was even in position to pressurise Leong was a relief to him, as he'd smacked the barrier at the Solitude esses with a rear wheel on the opening lap. And credit to Allen Lo, Stephen Hong and Kang Ling (if you're an F3 junkie, you may remember him from the crash-infested 2015 European F3 season) for a highly entertaining battle for fourth. They kept the Macau GP flame burning.

Do the international teams want to return?

Of course they do. "It's my first missed Macau since 1988," says Carlin boss Trevor Carlin, who first went as a member of the Bowman Racing team owned by his uncles Steve and Vic Hollman. "It's all a bit odd not doing the jetfoil from Hong Kong and all that stuff in November."

If the Macau GP bounces back in an international format in 2021, go and find a hat ready to doff not only to the local organisers, but the racing-mad teams who make the event what it is

And it's a draw for the FIA F3 Championship drivers too. "It's one of those races everyone is desperate to do," adds Carlin. "We have it as an option in their contract because it's non-championship, and all our drivers this year wanted to do it."

Carlin says that contesting Macau is "not cheap". "The biggest issue is you lose all your equipment for a period of time, so you can't do any testing," he explains. "You've got your labour costs, your travel costs to a degree. If you do a full rebuild, relivery it, and pre-Macau testing, it all ramps up."

Freight is offset by the Macanese organisers paying for the cars to travel by air to the event, and by ship for their return, but the lengthy sea voyage keeps the cars out of testing action for longer - not so much an issue in the new FIA F3 era, where testing is banned outside the official sessions, but in the pre-2019 days teams would often pay for their cars to be flown back to Europe.

On the other hand, teams or drivers can do one-off deals with local sponsors, which is why you'll often see the names of glitzy Macanese hotels emblazoned on the cars.

For 2021? As you'd expect, Euroformula Open promoter Jesus Pareja is pushing as usual for his series to combine with Japan's Super Formula Lights equivalent to step into the breach and revive the pre-2019 philosophy of F3 for the Macau GP, should things fall through with the FIA F3 brigade.

This was causing some consternation to Prema Racing boss Rene Rosin, who has been almost ever-present at the race since childhood, when I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, because as far as he's concerned it's an event for FIA F3 cars.

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As you'd expect, Carlin is more relaxed - he does, after all, have teams in both FIA F3 and EFO. "I don't know about the other teams because it's not something I've discussed with them," he says, "but if it's going ahead I would love to do it, with whatever cars are going there.

"If it's Euroformula and SFL cars we'd be as keen as if it's FIA F3 cars. We would have gone and supported some F4 drivers if the quarantine thing hadn't been so strict."

If the Macau GP bounces back in an international format in 2021, go and find a hat ready to doff not only to the local organisers, but the racing-mad teams who make the event what it is.