SUPPLEMENT TUE 13.11.2018 RENATO MARQUES RENATO YOUNG STARS SEEKING BRIGHTERGUIA LIGHT CIRCUIT ON PREVIEW Young stars seeking a brighter light on Guia Circuit Renato Marques Ticktum aside, Schumacher will also be well-supported in ITH the return of the field by the SJM Theodo- the “Queen” of Ma- re Racing – Prema team. The MARQUES RENATO cau races, and to a team’s Dallara-Mercedes cars format closer to will be in the hands of names theW former Formula 3 Intercon- like Guan Yu Zhou Ralf Aron, tinental Cup held at Guia Circuit Marcus Armstrong and Robert until 2015, this year’s edition of Schwartzman. the FIA F3 World Cup will ga- And if you think the list of hi- ther the best drivers of the year ghlighted contenders ends here, from the FIA Formula 3 cham- you could not be more wrong, as pionships of Europe and Japan. Carlin’s four-car field is sending Topping the entry list are na- an army composed of Jehan mes like Mick Schumacher, Daruvala, Callum Ilott, Sacha son of the seven-time F1 World Fenestraz and Japan’s Yoshiaki Champion Michael Schumacher, Katayama. who on his second attempt in With only a two-car field, the F3 European Championship TOM’s brings All-Japan Formu- won the title. la 3 Championship title winner In fact, the Macau Grand Prix Sho Tsuboi and Ritomo Miyata grid for this year features a total to drive their Dallara-Toyota. of 16 FIA Formula 3 European Although Schumacher and Ti- Championship drivers. cktum are considered “natural” The race will pit them against candidates for the title, there each other, such as last year’s are many names that could ea- winner Daniel Ticktum and this sily interfere with their “tango” year’s Formula 3 European Vice- through the streets of Macau, Champion, Mick Schumacher. as the 28-car field is laden with Paring with Ticktum on the Mo- young talent. topark Academy team is a great But this is nothing more than set of drivers and well- known theory. The real deal gets un- names from the Guia Circuit. derway with free practice and Joel Eriksson, Ferdinand qualifying on November 15 and Habsburg and Marino Sato 16, followed by the Qualification will all be racing with Dallara- Race on Saturday which sets the The Formula 3 pits Volkswagen of Motorpark. The grid for the race, to be held on team also includes rookie Juri November 17. Sunday is reser- On a last note, we could not re- Van Amersfoort Racing has assig- in this category. Macau’s Charles Vips, a first-timer in Macau who ved for the Grand Prix, when the frain from noting two facts: the first ned one of its cars to German dri- Leong will assume one of the cars has already showed his talent final will be held and Ticktum’s being a rare female participant in ver Sophia Florsch. She will be the from Hitech GP, with the partici- this year, winning a street-circuit successor to the Macau title will these open-wheel championships only female on track. Secondly, the pation of Jake Hughes. at Norisring. be decided. in Macau – this time Dutch team rare participation of a local racer Leong managed to win both the PREVIEW The most ‘local’ of all GP races MARQUES RENATO Renato Marques some have been doing on the trial run of this of the race – like last for several decades al- competition, the event year, when it rained. HOUGH out of the ready. has been completely The race began behind Tspotlight it once For these racers, this merged into only one the safety car for the was in, year after year is their only chance to event, with both the first three laps and was the Macau Touring share the 6.2 kilome- race and the qualifying shortened, finishing Car Cup continues to ter Guia Circuit with and practice sessions four laps later when a be the most local of all some of their idols, to include all the cars multi-car incident oc- Grand Prix (GP) racing or at least prominent listed in this category. curred at the Dona Ma- events. figures in the sport. To recall, last year, ria bend which brought Believe it or not, for To reach this moment the two different car out the red flags and local fans this is still in the season, they had specifications were the winners were an- Jeronimo Badaraco one of the most anti- to first pass selection only merged in the ac- nounced early. cipated races. Maybe in early spring. It takes tual race, while quali- Last year’s winners not exactly because of several rounds of com- fying and practice ses- are back again this its magnificence, but petition to select the sions were done sepa- year. Among the most for the fact that a large year’s best competitors rately. notorious names are majority of its partici- for a final race as an For this year’s entry Macau driver Leong pants are Macau and award for their effort. list, the 36 pre-quali- Ian Veng in a Mitsu- Hong Kong amateur Similar to what was fied drivers will have bishi Lancer Evolution racers, people that you enforced in last year’s the chance to fight for 7 and Japan’s Mitsuhi- know from your daily edition of the GP, this the laurels of cham- ro Kinoshita in a Nis- life, faces that you see race will feature cars in pion. san GTR R34. in the office or in pu- two different catego- As for the favorites For the smaller engi- blic service. ries, bringing together to win the finals -- and ne capacity category, This is the race of lo- racing cars with two di- like in the last event local Jeronimo Bada- cal and regional cham- fferent specifications, -- this race has a re- raco will be in a Che- pions; amateur drivers the 1.6 and 2.0-liter cord of being affected vrolet Cruze and Hong that race above all, for turbocharged engines. by mishaps that often Kong’s Paul Poon will the passion to parti- This year, and con- lead to interruptions be in a Peugeot RCZ, Leong Ian Veng cipate in the event, as trary to what happened or even a shortening and they will prove to II tue 13.11.2018 PREVIEW Young stars seeking a brighter light on Guia Circuit MARQUES RENATO Mick Schumacher RENATO MARQUES RENATO Chinese Formula 4 and Asian For- Leong will be paired with Hughes, mula Renault championship titles another driver that has been achie- last year, and he has been strong ving results in F3 Asian Cham- this year in his first ever F3 Asian pionship and known to be capable of Championship Certified by FIA. a little surprise, if the chance arises. Daniel Tickum FIRST PERSON RUI VALENTE Well, [to participate in the WTCR race] for me, it was a possible solu- Local WTCR participants MARQUES RENATO tion after being just one spot away to qualify for acknowledge difficulties the [Food4You Race] where I’ve [been] racing for many years. and opportunities Since I couldn’t achie- ve that, I tried to [de- Renato Marques termine] the possible options to race and the UNNING for the WTCR seemed to be the Rfirst time as FIA only reasonable one. World Touring Car It’s of course a very Cup (WTCR) and with complex race with a lot a season finale in Ma- of top world drivers that cau, the FIA, together are doing the World with local organizers, Kevin Tse’s car Championship and tho- has decided to grant se are [theoretically] out the opportunity to six KEVIN TSE whole year and therefore of our reach. local racers to enter I am very excited and ho- they have tons of knowledge I would say there are Rui Valente the Macau WTCR race nored to be representing and setup reference for their about seven candidates as “wildcard” entries. Macau in the upcoming cars and Yokohama tires. for the World Title and for the race and then to sible crashes of drivers, The event will the- WTCR race. Racing against There is lot of catching-up I am sure they will race be calm and try to take that are theoretically refore see a record the world-best touring car- for me to do. We will have to their full to achieve the opportunities that faster, to gain positions. 31 cars on track, en- drivers is a dream come a few days of testing to ho- that. will for sure arise. The In addition we also riching the grid with true and I really appreciate pefully gain as much setup In my particular case, front-runners will be have in this cham- some local experience. the support that the Macau knowledge [as possible] firstly there is the need racing hard and in Ma- pionship a good group of The Times inter- government, Sports Bureau before heading to Macau. to classify for the race cau that means crashing at least eight or nine dri- viewed two of these and AAMC have given me. Making the 105 percent but I think it is possib- hard too. vers [who] will be racing racers to learn about As for the race, it will be a qualifying-cut is our first le; the car is good and It’s important to be on the Guia circuit for their feelings and am- very tough challenge. Wor- objective and then hope- I know the circuit very patient and [not] get the first time and our ex- bitions ahead of Guia ld-class drivers and teams fully we will finish well in well.