This weekend, Macau will stage one of the most important Formula 3 races of the year: the Macau Grand Prix. The grid of the prestigious race in the former Portuguese colony will also feature numerous competitors of the 2016 FIA F3 European Championship. The spearhead of the European series will be vice-champion Maximilian Günther (SJM Theodore Racing by Prema) who will make his debut at the 6.12-kilometre long Circuito da Guia. But he will have to fight hard as competitors such as the former Macau winners Felix Rosenqvist (SJM Theodore Racing by Prema), Daniel Juncadella (HitechGP) and António Félix da Costa (Carlin) all are determined to try to make it to the top step on the podium of the Macau GP that will be contested for the first time in its history as FIA Formula 3 World Cup, this year.
Fourteen FIA Formula 3 EC drivers will travel to the South China and in addition, there will be another three drivers – the Britons Lando Norris (Carlin), Daniel Ticktum and Alexander Sims (both Double R Racing) on the grid who made an FIA Formula 3 European Championship guest appearance in the season finale at the Hockenheimring.
As FIA Formula 3 European Champion Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam) opted for not making the trip to Asia, following his signing as GP regular by Williams F1, Maximilian Günther is the best-place FIA Formula 3 European Championship driver to race in Macau. But George Russell (HitechGP) who finished third in the championship and Kiwi Nick Cassidy (SJM Theodore Racing by Prema), Joel Eriksson (Motopark) and Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing) who followed right behind in the championship ranking, also will contest the Macau Grand Prix to finish of their 2016 Formula 3 season.
In the race held not far from Hong Kong, this year’s FIA Formula 3 European Championship drivers will have to battle it out – inter alia – with Felix Rosenqvist, the 2015 FIA F3 European Champion. The Swede already is a two-time Macau GP winner and now will try to secure his third F3 win in the tradition-rich event. This would be an achievement accomplished by no other driver in the history of the sport.
In addition to Rosenqvist who won the 2015 edition of the Macau GP, Alexander Sims also has really fond memories of the Asian circuit: he came third, last year. Apart from that, India’s Arjun Maini (Motopark) is the only driver on this year’s grid who made it to the top 10 in 2015. At the end of the day, all top-10 positions last year were secured by FIA F3 European Championship drivers and since the comeback of the European Championship in 2013, every edition of the arguably most prestigious F3 race in the world was won by a participant of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.
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