Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

Ahead of the decisive main races of Sunday, who is feeling confident in Macau’s FRegional and F4 paddocks?

The qualification races for the FIA Formula Regional and Formula 4 World Cups both delivered action and intrigue on Saturday, and have set up what should be an exciting Sunday at the Macau Grand Prix.

In the main event, Theophile Nael set a new lap record for FRegional cars around the Guia Circuit by half a second over his KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport team-mate Mari Boya, but neither driver won as a superb start from Prema’s Freddie Slater put him past poleman Nael into a lead he was able to extend to over five seconds during the 10-lap race.

Slater entered the unknown at the front, as disruptions earlier in the weekend meant this was the first time a run of consecutive laps lasting that long had been completed. While he had also contested the grand prix in 2024, the first time FRegional cars were used, that event ran mostly in mixed conditions so there was still plenty of learning to be done in 2025.

On the grid for Saturday’s qualification race, Slater said to get a good start “was the key factor”, but after he claimed the lead a few seconds in he was “just trying to get a read on balance for tomorrow” thereon.

“We’ve got an extra five laps tomorrow, so we need to know what we need to do overnight to make it even better,” he noted.

“It [the car] has had pace all weekend. The track’s getting faster and faster now, the times are coming down with the race runs, and the track’s getting grippy, so it’s good fun out there.”

Slater was able to have more fun in part due to “understanding the car after a full season in this category”, having won the European championship this year with Prema. And while the racing line was very grippy by the end of the day when the FRegional cars took to track, that had more challenging consequences too.

Freddie Slater

“There’s one line, and if you’re not on it you’re in the wall,” beamed the race winner, before later being more analytical.

“There’s a lot of rubber down there now, but then off-line it’s very dirty. It’s quite a fine line between getting it right and getting it wrong now, which is very interesting. Especially for us [single-seaters].”

However Slater’s race could have panned out differently from the front row. After taking the lead, he was susceptible to the slipstreams down the straights before the first braking zone at Lisboa, and at the high-speed Mandarin corner ART Grand Prix’s Evan Giltaire and Boya tried getting alongside him.

The faster Pinnacle drivers then had to clear Giltaire, with overtaking obviously tricky on the iconic street circuit, before they could show their true pace. By the time they did, Slater’s lead was too large to be extinguished before race-end.

“I know they managed to pass Evan during the race, but it’s not really that normal sometimes. The start was crucial,” reflected Slater.

“I had a really good start, and from thereon you’re trying to manage the slipstream and trying to see where to block people out and make sure they’re not getting too big of a run. And Evan was alongside me as well, so it was kind of two cars in the middle.”

On how close he came to losing the lead he had only just gained on lap one, he added: “I looked in my mirror, Mari was quite far away; I looked again, and he was literally on my rear wing. The slipstream is pretty powerful here and it always makes the racing good fun.”

Boya and Nael also very much enjoyed themselves on track, and had plenty of positives to take away from the results despite finishing behind Slater. While the winner’s buzzword was “fun”, Boya’s was “revenge”.

Single-lap pace

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Session
1	Theophile Nael	KCMG/Pinnacle	2m15.561s	Race
2	Freddie Slater	Prema	+0.147s	Q1
3	Evan Giltaire	ART GP	+0.323s	Q2
4	Taito Kato	ART GP	+0.355s	Q2
5	Enzo Deligny	R-ace GP	+0.398s	Q2
6	Mari Boya	KCMG/Pinnacle	+0.468s	Q1
7	Mattia Colnaghi	PHM Racing	+0.475s	Q2
8	Rashid Al Dhaheri	Prema	+0.997s	Q2
9	Matteo De Palo	R-ace GP	+1.090s	Q1
10	Kanato Le	ART Grand Prix	+1.097s	Race
11	Enzo Yeh	PHM Racing	+1.123s	Race

“Yesterday I was a bit frustrated, felt I had a lot more, but today we got revenge, and the weekend is not over yet,” he said after his drive from sixth on the grid to second place. “I felt we had a really good pace, and even for tomorrow we can do better steps. I understand better the car, so now we will analyse and tomorrow we come back stronger.”

Boya admitted to making a “big mistake” on the last lap, pointing to the unknown element of a 10-lap stint, but it was mission accomplished for the FIA Formula 3 regular who finished fourth in the 2023 Macau GP when it ran for F3 cars.

“Since the start I felt I was really on it this race,” he added. “I know what to ask my engineer to maybe be a bit quicker. And being more comfortable on the limit. Because today the last laps were a bit tricky for me. But the beginning of the race was really strong. So happy about the race, and also the conclusions we take for tomorrow.”

While a strong start was as valuable to his result as it was to Slater’s, he claimed his F3 experience worked against him on the run to Lisboa.

“The thing is that I’m not used to racing with these drivers. I’m a bit older than them. So I don’t know really well how to fight with them. Because I don’t know how aggressive they are. So I need to always take a look, like knock on their door, then see what’s next. Anyway I had the pace, I was following pretty easy [with] Giltaire. So I just see where was my strongest points [to attempt passing], and when I see it’s clear I went for it.”

A similar logic was applied by Nael, who graduated from FRegional to F3 this year, in regards to his descent from first to fourth on the opening lap. But he could see the positives, as shown by his first words on microphone post-race.

“To be honest I prefer to start second row for tomorrow. With the slipstream it will help a lot,” he quipped.

Theophile Nael

“I need to work on the start for tomorrow, I will see what happened. But it is [such a long] time that I [have] not drove this car, so the first start is always a bit tricky.”

Nael said specifically “to get used to the clutch was a bit hard”, but he should “be good for tomorrow”. He will be on the same side of the grid for his second start back in the car, and wants to avoid losing out in battle in the all-important main race.

Being on the outside line for turn one proved costly, then to avoid hitting another car “I had to brake, but it’s fair play”. That led to a big loss of momentum down the following straight and he was fortunate to only lose three places.

“The pace during the whole race was really good. I was [able] to improve the two last laps, even the track record I think. So car is feeling good and I’m positive for tomorrow,” he remarked.

Since he bettered his pace as the fuel load lowered and the tyres became more worn, Nael feels confident about the main race’s longer distance but says “there is a lack of bite in the brake” to be aware of at all times as well as tyre degradation.

“I know what to improve on the car as well like Mari with my engineer,” he added. “If we see the pace of today, should be fine.”

Outside of the top three, only ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato in fifth, R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny in sixth and PHM Racing’s Mattia Colnaghi in seventh were within a second of Nael’s pace, with two sub-2m16s laps that were record-setters.

After the F4 race earlier in the day, all the talk was about Emanuele Olivieri’s lap one move for the lead on Sebastian Wheldon around the outside of Mandarina corner. Brave was the word many used to describe the winner’s overtake.

“I got a good jump so I knew I had quite a good opportunity to overtake Wheldon. I thought T2 was easy flat, and also around the outside, but I ended up quite close to the wall. So it was quite a risky move,” he admitted.

Emanuele Olivieri

“After that I just had to manage my tyres. It was quite slippery around, so just bring it to the chequered flag.”

He was chased for most of the race by Fionn McLaughlin, who had fresher rubber after not setting any laptimes in practice, and Olivieri “was quite worried” when “Fionn was so close to me” as he thought he was “struggling around with the rear” tyres and believed the Red Bull junior behind had a pace advantage.

“I think today was the hottest track temperature of the [weekend]. Usually the more hot, the more slippery it is. So we chose to be on old tyres to be all set for tomorrow. I don’t think it was maybe the best choice, but we won the race so I won’t complain too much. But I was quite struggling to actually keep the car on track because I was – I think you can see it on the onboard – really oversteering in every corner. So I was also quite trying to be safe. To not do some silly mistake.

“But the new tyres advantage is giving you quite a lot of laptime, and confidence obviously.”

Olivieri was actually the quickest driver in the qualification race, and took the fastest lap by 0.783s over Yutsai Chan. Wheldon and Kean Nakamura Berta would have been two likely rivals as pacesetters after topping qualifying, but they crashed out at Lisboa on lap one after being passed by Olivieri.

That pair will start 15th and 16th for the main race, while Olivieri goes into Sunday with pole,”a lot of confidence” and has committed to “give it everything” to win the World Cup.

Jules Roussel was runner-up to Olivieri on Saturday, 5.687s behind, after charging up from ninth on the grid and overtaking at the very last corner of the race. To do the same on Sunday if battling for the win would certainly rival Olivieri’s move.

The post Super starts and bold overtakes: What will decide the 2025 Macau GP? appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

Freddie Slater dominated the Macau Grand Prix’s qualification race, wining by over five seconds.

The Prema driver was alongside KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport’s poleman Theophile Nael straight away and took the lead on the inside through the opening corner, had his mirrors filled through the next corner, then went unchallenged through the remainder of the 10-lap race to secure pole for Sunday’s main race.

However, his Saturday ended with an investigation regarding speeding in the pitlane prior to the race.

After Nael lost the lead to a wheel-spinning Slater, Giltaire and Pinnacle team-mate Mari Boya then overtook him exiting turn one. Boya got alongside Giltaire, but tucked in behind Slater while Giltaire carried more speed on the outside through Mandarin. When they reached Lisboa, Nael looked to the outside of Boya but there was no room to attempt passing.

Slater created a 1.682-second gap on lap one, which grew to 2.6s, 3.2s and then 4.55s while Giltaire kept the faster Pinnacle drivers behind him.

Boya, who had started sixth, nosed ahead approaching Lisboa on lap two and four but could not overtake as he was on the outside line.

Giltaire weaved from Reservoir all the way to after Mandarin on lap five, but could do it no more once Boya was alongside and this time he got fully past on the straight so turned into Lisboa ahead.

While Boya then had clean air, Slater still grew his lead to 5.766s over the next two laps before the Pinnacle drivers showed their pace advantage. Nael copied Boya’s overtake on lap six, but only got back onto his team-mate’s gearbox at the end as he set the race’s only two sub-2m16s laps.

ART GP’s Taito Kato and R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny lost out to Boya at the start, with Kato holding off Deligny into Lisboa on lap three to keep fifth. Deligny was also noted by officials for pitlane speeding pre-race.

PHM Racing’s Mattia Colnaghi finished seventh, and the top 10 was completed by James Egozi (Sainteloc Racing), Noah Stromsted (Trident) and Rashid Al Dhaheri (Prema).

There were overtakes after lap one further back, as R-ace’s Matteo De Palo and PHM’s Jose Garfias demoted Trident’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak to 13th on lap eight.

It was a clean race, with Evans GP’s Oscar Wurz the only retiree on lap one. Approaching the Melco hairpin he carried too much speed and locked up, and thanks to Prema’s Charles Leong weaving to the right did plough into anyone. 

However when Leong turned onto the racing line, Wurz broke his front wing and front-right wheel on him as he drove past at a corner where overtaking is not allowed. Wurz was able to stop down the escape road, meaning not even yellow flags were needed.

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Newman Chi finished last after getting a 10s stop-go penalty for a mechanic being on the grid after the one-minute board was shown.

Race results (10 laps)

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Photo: Macau GP Organising Committee

KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport’s Theophile Nael claimed pole position for the Macau Grand Prix qualification race by topping Q2.

A 2m15.708s was the time to beat entering Friday’s session, as Prema’s Freddie Slater had set the pace in Q1 on Thursday.

The fielded headed out on fresh tyres, and R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny was the initial pacesetter. Nael and team-mate Mari Boya then moved ahead, before Slater posted a 2m17.033s to lead Nael by 0.347 seconds. ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato also lapped sub-2m18s to go fourth fastest, but was soon fifth as team-mate Evan Giltaire set a 2m17.874s to rise to third.

Deligny improved to 2m17.589s on his next lap, moving ahead of Giltaire who then reclaimed the place by 0.023s. Meanwhile Nael outpaced Slater by 0.027s, and was set to improve again before PHM Racing’s Jose Garfias crashed in the mountain section. He triggered a six-minute red flag period, and the session clock was paused.

After the restart, Boya lapped 0.136s shy of Nael 17 minutes in to sit third. Both then set purple sector splits next time by, but ended their laps by pitting.

At the session’s halfway mark, Deligny was demoted to fifth despite improving as PHM’s Mattia Colnaghi set a 2m16.783s to go quickest by 0.223s.

Kato put in a 2m17.238s to go fourth fastest before red flags waved as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Tymek Kucharczyk crashed, and this time Slater was disadvantagd as he had set a purple sector split.

Following another six-minute break, qualifying resumed. There was change at the top with 13 minutes to go, as Deligny lowered the pace by 0.172s. Two minutes later red flags returned, as Evans GP’s Charlie Wurz crashed. Boya and Colnaghi had been set to challenge Deligny’s 2m16.611s.

It was a brief interruption, and with seven minutes left the pole battle heated up. Boya set a 2m16.933s in third, and just behind Nael posted a 2m15.977s to lead Deligny by 0.634s and get within 0.269s of Slater’s provisional pole time.

A 2m16.684s put Prema’s Rashid Al Dhaheri ahead of Boya in Q2’s classification, with Giltaire setting a 2m16.743s to sit fourth with six minutes to go.

Deligny got within 0.018s of Nael one-and-a-half minutes later, and Boya was 0.129s shy of Nael, but both were slower than in Q1. But in Boya’s tow, Nael improved to 2m15.609s and now had provisional pole.

Slater’s responded by improving, but was 0.267s off the laptime that had toppled his Q1 benchmark by 0.099s. Colnaghi also made a big gain, but sat 0.427s behind Nael in fourth.

Giltaire snatched third with 96s left on the clock, setting a 2m15.884s, and Kato went 0.032s slower than him in fourth. That demoted Deligny and Colnaghi to fifth and sixth. Boya was improving at the end but pitted, and his Q1 time put him ahead of Colnaghi. Al Dhaheri, R-ace’s Matteo De Palo and Trident’s Noah Stromsted completed the top 10.

Qualifying results

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Photo; Macau GP Organising Committee

Prema’s Freddie Slater was quickest in the second Macau Grand Prix practice session on Friday morning.

The 40-minute session began with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kiyoshi Umegaki setting the pace, as he logged a 2m21.595s banker lap to lead team-mate Tymek Kucharczyk by 0.008 seconds. The pair would not improve on those times.

Around eight minutes in the rest of the field set their first laps at pace, with R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny usurping Umegaki with a 2m17.960s. He initially lead team-mate Jin Nakamura by 0.579s, then Slater got within 0.303s og him.

PHM Racing’s Mattia Colnaghi was next to occupy third, 0.305s off Deligny’s pace, prior to red flags waving as ART Grand Prix’s Kanato Le crashed to bring a stop to the session before nine minutes had even passed.

The restart occurred 16 minutes in, and Deligny led the field out of the pits. When he then embarked on his first flying lap since the stoppage, he went off but avoided hitting any barriers and was able to safely rejoin the circuit.

Charlie Wurz and one of his Evans GP team-mates went off at Lisboa, and when flying laps were finally completed at the 21-minute mark it was R-ace’s Matteo De Palo who went to the top with a 2m17.794s.

His time ahead was shortlived, as KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport’s Mari Boya went 0.064s faster than him 10s later and his team-mate Theophile Nael then posted a rapid 2m16.955s. But that lap was not to count as red flags had just waved due to Evans GP’s Oscar Wurz crashing hard at Fishermen’s Bend.

Just seven-and-a-half minutes remained when green flags waved again, and with two minutes-and-40 seconds left on the clock Deligny set a 2m16.957s to snatch back top spot by 0.773s. De Palo trimmed that advantage to 0.639s, then Nakamura cut it further 0.614s, and when Boya crossed the line he lowered the pace to 2m16.781s.

Slater beat that by 0.229s with just over two minutes to go, and his 2m16.552s would not be bettered.

ART GP’s Taito Kato and PHM’s Jose Garfias went fourth and sixth fastest, 0.78s and 1.035s off the pace respectively, before session-ending red flags waved after VAR’s Newman Chi crashed at Fisherman’s.

Inclusive out outlaps, the most running done by anyone was nine laps. That was achieved by Boya, Nakamura and De Palo. Pinnacle’s Theophile Nael set eight, but along with Le, Oscar Wurz and Trident pair Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Reza Seewooruthun failed to log any laptimes.

Free practice results

The post Slater leads Boya in second Macau GP practice session appeared first on Formula Scout.

Photo: Macau GP Organizing Committee

Prema’s Freddie Slater stole top spot away from R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny at the end of the Macau Grand Prix’s first qualifying session.

Deligny was first out of the pits and went fastest as he and his team-mates set banker laps early in the 40-minute session.

A 2m19.990s comfortably put Deligny on top, and he improved to 2m17.9s next time by to lead Jin Nakamura by 0.767 seconds.

KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport’s Theophile Nael slashed his advantage to 0.08s on his first flying lap, with PHM Racing’s Mattia Colnaghi and Nael’s team-mate Mari Boya also getting within 0.5s of Deligny nine minutes in.

Deligny slid through the last corner but avoided crashing next time by, as team-mates Matteo De Palo and Nakamura got within 0.014s and 0.181s of him to sit second and fourth. A minute later they all sat far from the top, as Slater posted a 2m16.887s.

Colnaghi improved to 2m17.94s in fourth after 11 minutes, then ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato lapped a second off Slater’s time. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Kiyoshi Umegaki went off at Lisboa, but it proved non-disruptive.

De Palo was next to reduce Slater’s advantage, down to 0.705s, then Nael came 0.015s shy of beating him. Boya was 0.133s off in third just before Slater grew his gap again to 0.581s.

Boya brought it back down to 0.398s, before yellow flags waved at Lisboa caused by PHM’s Enzo Yeh. Kato got within 0.565s of Slater in third after that, and the pacesetter pitted. De Palo lapped 0.33s off his benchmark, but was soon fourth as Deligny set a 2m16.297s to lead Nael by 0.044s. Another improvement from Boya put him fourth, 0.29s off, before he pitted too.

The next change in the top five came with 10 minutes to go, as Slater went quickest by 0.165s. Just after, Evans GP’s Hiyu Yamakoshi had a red flag-causing crash at Lisboa and Deligny went off there too.

A few minutes later Q1 restarted, and Deligny’s advantageous pit position proved critical as two seconds after he bettered Slater by 0.116s there were red flags due to Trident’s Reza Seewooruthun crashing. Evans GP’s Charlie Wurz got stuck at turn 19 on his way back to the pits, meaning a lengthy stoppage before green flags waved with just over five minutes to go.

Deligny bunched up the field for most of the outlap, cannily leaving only himself and De Palo time for two flying laps.

But De Palo then pitted and Deligny failed to improve. The chequered flag waved, and Boya got within 0.013s of Deligny.

Slater did even better, going fastest by 0.308s with purple sectors two and three. Nael lapped 0.019s off Boya to sit fourth, and Deligny was set for another non-improvement before Umegaki crashed and brought out yellow flags that scuppered his plan regardless.

Qualifying results

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Photo: ACI Sport

ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato set the pace in the first of the two 40-minute practice sessions for the Macau Grand Prix.

First to the top was R-ace GP’s Enzo Deligny, leading team-mate Jin Nakamura. Prema’s Freddie Slater then became his closest rival eight minutes in, with Evans GP’s Charlie Wurz then getting within a second of Deligny on his next lap.

Slater was in his tow and posted the first sub-2m20s lap of the day, as team-mate Rashid Al Dhaheri went third fastest.

Kato took over that position 12-and-a-half minutes in, 0.597 seconds off Slater’s 2m19.911s benchmark, and Nakamura improved in fourth before red flags waved due to Evans GP’s Hiyu Yamakoshi losing his rear-right wheel while on track.

Green flags waved again 21 minutes in, and five minutes later Nakamura got within 0.296s of Slater. KCMG Pinnacle Motorsport driver Mari Boya reduced the gap to 0.215s a few seconds later, before team-mate Theophile Nael lowered the pace to 2m19.438s.

Deligny had clean air and when he crossed the line he went fastest by 0.83s, and 40s later Kato rose to second with a laptime 0.204s off.

Wurz later set a personal best in fourth, then Boya was 0.012s slower than Kato with his next effort. Nael, in his slipstream, lowered the pace again to 2m18.107s and the next driver to challenge him was Slater who got within 0.12s of his benchmark.

Kato next crossed the line with just over 10 minutes to go and set a 2m18.804s to go gastest, with team-mate Kanato Le 0.792s off in fourth before yellow flags waved at Lisboa due to Deligny going off.

Slater’s response was a 2m17.450s, snatching back top spot by 0.354s, and on his next lap Le improved again in fourth.

The Pinnacle drivers continued to run together and Boya got within 0.292s of Slater with seven minutes remaining, only for Nael to instantly demote him as he lapped 0.078s faster. Yellow flags appeared at turn 10 due to a driver stopping, but personal bests were still set and Nakamura went fifth fastest by four-and-a-half minutes to go by lapping in the 2m17s.

Shortly after, Slater seta 2m16.742s that put him 0.922s clear. Deligny moved ahead of Nakamura in the final four minutes, then Kato went 0.33s quicker than Slater with just over three minutes to go. Le was 0.831s off his team-mate, but that was good enough for third, as their other team-mate Evan Giltaire took fifth place.

New benchmarks in sectors three and four were set by Boya after that, but when he crossed the line he was 0.171s shy of Kato, while Deligny improved to 2m17.016s in fourth with one-and-a-half minutes left of FP1.

Le went fourth and Giltaire set a personal best in sixth during the final minute, and after the chequered flag Slater missed out on beating Kato by just 0.044s.

Deligny found more pace to be 0.319s back in fifth, with Giltaire improving yet again in sixth to edge ahead of Le.

Free practice results

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There will be 10 teams entering the event on November 13-16, which will award the FIA FRegional World Cup to the winner, compared to 11 last year.

Dutch outfit MP Motorsport, New Zealand’s FRegional Americas dominator Kiwi Motorsport and the TGM Grand Prix squad from Japan are not returning after competing in 2024, while Trident and Van Amersfoort Racing join to fight for FRegional honours.

R-ace GP will defend its 2024 victory, and remaining on the grid after racing last year are ART Grand Prix, Evans GP, PHM Racing, Pinnacle Motorsport, Prema, Sainteloc Racing and TOM’S. Pinnacle competed last year in partnership with KCMG.

Trident previously entered cars in the Macau GP in its last two editions as a Formula 3 race in 2019 and 2023. On its first visit to the challenging Guia Circuit it rose up the order over the weekend. Alession Lorandi was its highest placed driver in qualifying, putting his car 14th on the grid for the qualification race.

He rose to seventh in that encounter, then to fifth in the main race as team-mate David Beckmann started and finished ninth.

Two years ago its best qaulfier was Ugo Ugochukwu (who won the 2024 grand prix) in ninth, but in the qualification race Richard Verschoor (the 2019 winner) was its top driver in 12th. He charged up to sixth in the main race.

VAR has a far longer history in Macau, having first raced there in 1998. Bas Leinders finished eighth for the team that year.

Its next appearance in the grand prix was 2011 with one car, but their weekend ended by being eliminated on lap one of the main race. VAR had two cars in 2012, but also did not see the chequered flag on the Sunday.

The team returned in 2014 with future Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen in its line-up. The single-seater rookie qualified third and charged from 24th to seventh in the main race after retiring in the qualification race.

Charles Leclerc was Macau GP runner-up for VAR in 2015, Callum Ilott was second in the qualification race in 2016 but fell to fifth in the main race, and Ralf Aron made his way from 15th on the grid to the grand prix podium in 2017.

Unfortunately VAR’s participation in 2018 was remembered for Sophia Floersch’s back-breaking shunt, but she recovered to be back on the grid for 2019 while VAR was absent as only teams from the FIA F3 Championship were invited to take part.

It joined that championship a few years later, enabling it have a ninth attempt at winning the Macau GP in 2023. While another podium eluded the team, there was celebrations as Floersch was its top driver in 11th place.

Trident and VAR are currently Formula 2, FIA F3 and Formula Regional European Championship rivals.

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Photo: Macau Grand Prix

The inaugural FIA FRegional World Cup hit the marks it needed to, and a lot of barriers, in Macau

While the Macau Grand Prix is mostly associated with Formula 3, the event itself is better known to a wider audience – and to professional drivers – now as the home of the FIA GT World Cup. As iconic as the conclusion to the 2017 grand prix is, it’s been pile-ups and wheel-to-wheel racing in the sportscar races that have stuck in more people’s minds of late.

The GT element of the weekend has thrived in part due to the instability of the titular single-seater race during the FIA’s retirement of F3 and the COVID-19 pandemic. Between the 2019 and 2023 editions of the FIA F3 World Cup in Macau were three editions of the grand prix which ran as part of the Chinese Formula 4 championship and attracted only ‘local’ talents.

Luke Browning starred to win on F3’s return last year, but that weekend brought to the fore logistic and budgetary markers that the big-spending teams of the Formula 1 support paddock (whether they wish to be big spenders or not) did not see as essential to their schedules.

Confirmation that FRegional would replace F3 in Macau did not come until May of this year, and that was too late. As in several years too late.

F3 is now just a name owned by a company, and the rights to that name is exercised by Formula Motorsport Ltd under agreements with the company that owns Formula 1. Formula 2 and F3 used to be categories, and the purpose of the Macau GP for many years was to bring the best active F3 drivers from around the world together, as well as past category stars and future category aspirants, to go up against each other on a very special track and with all the attention on them.

Drivers would join teams specifically for the event, but in 2019 and 2023 the event was treated as part of the FIA F3 Championship schedule for many. It was either the last event of their programme with a team, or their first with a squad they had already signed to spend the next year with in the F1 support paddock.

The 2023 Macau GP

A few other names crept in, with seats becoming available if teams’ regular drivers from that year were seeking to spend November on holiday rather than travelling to Macau and potentially racking up massive repair bills.

The contrast was immediately noticeable when the entry list for the 2024 Macau GP came out.

The fourth-tier category had attracted a 27-car grid, with one driver from F2, six from F3-level series, 12 who were racing in FRegional-based series and seven from F4.

Of the drivers capping off campaigns in FRegional (or Eurocup-3) cars, only seven were with the teams they’d already spent most of 2024 with. The winner, Ugo Ugochukwu, was driving for R-ace GP but he raced for Prema in FRegional Europe this season and will be with it again in FIA F3 next year.

The mix of experience levels inevitably led to crashes, and the minimal dry weather running drivers got before the second qualifying session no doubt impacted the amount of red flags then. The FIA called a meeting to remind drivers about the respect they have to show the Guia circuit, but in truth the embarrassing on-track errors came from R-ace’s Tuukka Taponen, Prema’s Dino Beganovic and Alex Dunne and KCMG by Pinnacle Motorsport’s Mari Boya. All had raced in F3 previously, and only Taponen was new to Macau.

Having been disqualified from the qualification race for overtaking much of the field on the formation lap, Boya redeemed himself in the main race by coming from 27th and last on the grid to finish ninth.

FRegional being the long-term home category of the Macau GP immediately threw up exciting possibilities that the FIA chose to not act on for 2024.

They determined in June that it would be a race for spec cars, with each entry to run a Tatuus T-318 chassis fitted with a 1.8-litre Autotecnica-built Alfa Romeo engine.

Photo: FIA

The T-318 is well known to the European teams who race it in FREC and FRegional Middle East, but is an all-new combination to teams from elsewhere in the globe and a waste of money to purchase for a single race weekend.

In FRegional Americas there are Honda-powered Ligier cars, the Japanese use Alfa Romeo-powered Dome chassis, and in New Zealand a modified Tatuus car runs a 2.0L Toyota engine. Eurocup-3 has identical underpinnings to FREC but with some tweaks, and GB3 has developed a FRegional-level car with Tatuus too. The Kiwis at least can attract the Europeans to race their cars in the 2025 New Zealand Grand Prix next February.

Since the Macau GP has now been awarded the additional status of being the FRegional World Cup, it would be a bold decision to make it so in future by allowing more chassis and engine combinations so motorsport fans (who have been starved of this prospect for years) can watch an international junior single-seater formula race for contemporary machinery that isn’t a spec contest.

The problem is each of these FRegional chassis were designed to be used in spec series, and so across a full grid of cars there would be as little technical disparity as possible. When pitted against other chassis-engine combinations in the category, and excluding the 2.0L Toyota unit and its obvious power advantage, there may be one car that is either faster or slower than the others no matter who is behind the wheel. And if that were the case, the World Cup wouldn’t then be offering the opportunity for the stars of FRegional in Japan to prove they have the talent to match America or Europe’s championships.

Major FRegional races

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Photo: Macau Grand Prix

Oliver Goethe and Noel Leon plan to return to the Macau Grand Prix after making the podium this year.

For the first time, the grand prix ran for fourth-tier Formula Regional machinery and this attracted a mix of drivers already racing in the category through various championships across the globe as well as debutants stepping up from Formula 4 and others who stepped down from Formula 3.

The appeal of the race was amplified by Goethe’s presence, since the Red Bull junior is currently racing in Formula 2. He competed in FRegional back in 2021 and early ’22, scoring four points from 33 races, but across three years in single-seaters’ third tier he then won two races in the FIA Formula 3 Championship and was Euroformula champion.

Similarly, Leon only scored three points from his 20 FRegional races in 2022, then stepped up to the next level and won the 2023 Euroformula title before picking up four FIA F3 podiums in 2024. He will stay there for 2025, joining Prema’s line-up.

Goethe made the most of being first out of the pits to top the first practice and qualifying sessions in Macau last weekend, then Leon topped FP2. In Q2 they were second and third, beaten to pole position by Ugo Ugochukwu, and held their positions behind him in the qualification race and the FIA FRegional World Cup-awarding main race.

“We didn’t get many dry laps in general in the weekend. So it was tricky to find a perfect set-up and to get in the perfect rhythm, driving-wise. I was struggling on the restarts to stay very close,” said Goethe, who was driving for MP Motorsport.

“When the race went on, I feel like once I got into a rhythm I was starting to catch him a bit, but then there was so many safety cars and on the last restart I was quite close, but… not close enough to make a move. Yeah, of course I would love to win, but there’s always a next time.”

KCMG by Pinnacle Motorsport’s Leon sealed third after forcing the chasing Prema’s Freddie Slater into a mistake at Lisboa late on.

“Obviously it’s quite tricky; you are in the last spot of the podium. So the guy for sure is going to send it,” he explained.

“I knew it, if I leave a car of space [he would go for it], but it was damp inside. So as soon as he went for it, he locked up and he went straight. So, yeah, quite a smart move from me, from my side.”

Leon was “really happy to finish on the podium” after “a really tricky weekend” where “we had all types of weather conditions”, but added “we’ll try next time” to win.

FRegional cars will be used again in the 2025 edition of the Macau GP, and there are already two drivers from single-seaters’ higher levels wanting to be on the grid.

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Photo: Macau Grand Prix

PHM Racing’s Rashid Al Dhaheri and Matteo De Palo, and Sainteloc Racing’s Theophile Nael, have all been disqualified from the Macau Grand Prix.

On both of PHM’s cars, the stone guard was found to be not in conformity with the technical regulations, with stewards determining they had been modified compared against the design supplied by the manufacturer.

The stone guard is fitted in front of the radiator and intercooler, and on PHM’s cars the lower portion had been removed.

PHM argued that the classification of the part meant it could manufacturer it itself, and “considering that they do not have the specications of such part other than the external frame dimensions, that they could modify it to use only a part of the protected area”.

However the FIA’s technical delegate determined that such parts should still match the design of bought ones, and added “while the competitor could choose whether to use the part in its entirety or not, they could not alter the design such that only one area was protected by the wire mesh and another area was open and unprotected”.

It was also found that PHM had removed Al Dhaheri’s car from parc ferme, taken it to their garage and started working on it before it was due to be released from parc ferme post-race. This seperate offence also would have led to disqualification of the car had the technical delegate’s decision not already removed the car from the race results.

PHM submitted an intention to appeal the first decision, meaning the FIA had to secure the illegal parts for later examination.

De Palo and Al Dhaheri had finished fifth and sixth, with Evans GP’s Cooper Webster and Prema’s Alex Dunne now occupying those positions in the final classification.

Nael had been right behind Al Dhaheri before he was shown the black-and-orange flag in the race due to a damaged nosecone and had to pit. He stalled when in the pits, and members of his team pushed his car to get the engine started again. This was a breach of the sporting regulations, and the only true beneficiary from his disqualification was TOM’S driver Rikuto Kobayashi, who as the last driver to meet the chequered flag jumps from 15th to 12th.

Prema’s Freddie Slater and MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi were also considered classified finishers, but Slater crashed out on the last lap and Colnaghi’s race ended two laps before the end.

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