Race details Date 17 November 2019 Official name 66th Suncity Group Macau Grand Prix – FIA F3 World Cup Location Guia Circuit, Macau Course Temporary street circuit Distance Qualifying Race10 laps, Main Race15 laps, Weather Qualifying Race: Dry and clearMain Race: Dry and clear Qualifying Race Pole Driver Jüri VipsHitech Grand Prix Time 2:04.997 Fastest Lap Driver Jüri VipsHitech Grand Prix Time 2:06.317 (on lap 8) Podium First Jüri Vips Hitech Grand Prix Second Third Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix Main Race Pole Driver Jüri VipsHitech Grand Prix Fastest Lap Driver Jake Hughes HWA Racelab Time 2:06.419 Podium First Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport Second Jüri Vips Hitech Grand Prix Third Logan Sargeant
The 2019 Macau Grand Prix (officially the 66th Suncity Group Macau Grand Prix – FIA F3 World Cup) was a Formula Three (F3) motor race held on the streets of Macau on 17 November 2019. Unlike previous races, the event was a non-championship round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship, and drivers from all F3 championships were welcome. The race itself was made up of two races: a ten-lap qualifying race to set the starting grid for the fifteen-lap main event. It was the 66th Macau Grand Prix, and the first for FIA Formula 3, a different specification than the pre-2018 specification now known as Formula Regional.
MP Motorsport driver Richard Verschoor won the event from fourth place. Hitech Grand Prix's Jüri Vips won the qualification race the day before and led the first seven laps of the main race before being passed by Verschoor on the eighth lap. Verschoor held off Vips' several overtake attempts to become the first rookie to win the Macau Grand Prix since Keisuke Kunimoto in 2008. He was the first Dutch driver to win the event and the second overall, after Roberto Moreno, to win the New Zealand Grand Prix and Macau. Vips finished second and Carlin Buzz Racing's Logan Sargeant was third.
Background and entry list The Macau Grand Prix is a Formula Three (F3) race considered to be a stepping stone to higher motor racing categories such as Formula One and has been termed the territory's most prestigious international sporting event. The event was made a non-championship round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship for the first time in 2019; its head Bruno Michel ensured the season concluded at the Sochi Autodrom and not the Yas Marina Circuit as it had been in the preceding GP3 Series to prevent logistical complications for drivers and teams. It was the 66th Macau Grand Prix, the 37th under F3 rules, and the 4th FIA F3 World Cup. The race was held on the temporary 22-turn Guia Circuit in Macau's streets on 17 November 2019 after three days of practice and qualifying.
Drivers with an FIA Grade B licence or higher who raced in the FIA F3 Championship or its regional championships were invited to compete in Macau by motorsport's world governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), with higher-placed drivers in these respective series receiving priority in earning an invitation to the meeting. The race's 30-car grid featured 2019 FIA Formula 3 champion Robert Shwartzman, two-time Macau Grand Prix winner Dan Ticktum, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters driver Ferdinand Habsburg, FIA Formula Two competitor Callum Ilott, European Le Mans Series participant Arjun Maini, Japanese Formula 3 Championship racer Enaam Ahmed, and Enzo Fittipaldi and Sophia Flörsch from the Formula Regional European Championship. The Prema team hired Frederik Vesti, the Formula Regional European champion, to drive the injured Jehan Daruvala's car. Alex Peroni had to withdraw from the race due to a broken vertebrae he sustained in an accident at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.
The replacement of the series' outdated Dallara F317 car with the more powerful Dallara F3 2019 prompted organisers to upgrade the Guia Circuit from an FIA Grade 3 to a Grade 2 homologation. Former FIA race director Charlie Whiting and circuit organisers indicated a desire for such a shift in May 2019. They moved the inside wall at Lisboa turn to guide cars away from its apex kerb and towards a widened run-off area, in response to a major accident involving Flörsch, Daruvala and Sho Tsuboi in the 2018 race. The corner's fencing was supported by a second row of fences on the Hotel Lisboa grounds, a tyre wall was installed, and a photographer's area that had halted Flörsch's car was dismantled. The Reservoir and Mandarin Bend corners were realigned and retrofitted with SAFER barriers. TecPro energy-absorbing walls were erected at the San Francisco, Hospital, and Fisherman's Bend bends, while foam-protection technologies were implemented throughout the track.
Pirelli supplied tyres for the event for the second time after 2016. Cars were installed with drag reduction system (DRS), an adjustable flap at the back of each car that helps with overtaking when activated, at Macau for the first time. It had one activation zone for the race: on the straight between the Mandarin Oriental Bend and Lisboa corners. The FIA Formula 3 Championship rules required entrants to be within a second of each other in order to use DRS. An electronic flag system was implemented and elevated for the first time in ten areas of the circuit to complement the existing flags waved by track marshals. The sections were chosen by the FIA, the Macau Grand Prix Committee, and numerous Macau government ministries, with the goal of expanding its deployment in the future. The Government of Macau's Civil Aviation Authority barred all unmanned aircraft from flying during the race weekend to improve safety and prevent hindrances.
Practice and qualifying Two 40-minute practice sessions, one on Thursday morning and the other on Friday morning, preceded the race on Sunday. Marcus Armstrong set new unofficial track lap record of 2:08.023 with two minutes remaining in the first session, which took place in clear and warm weather. He was followed by Jake Hughes, Ticktum, Shwartzman, Richard Verschoor, Ilott, Vesti, Ahmed, Logan Sargeant and Christian Lundgaard in positions two through ten. With sixteen minutes remaining, Yuki Tsunoda braked too late and hit a barrier at Hospital Bend, triggering the virtual safety car procedure that dictates vehicles slow down. The Hitech Grand Prix team repaired his car; he could not participate for most of the first qualifying session because of ongoing car work. Jüri Vips had to enter pit lane to have his open rear wing slot fixed after experiencing a DRS failure late in the session.
Two 40-minute sessions were held on Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon, respectively, for qualifying. Each driver's final qualifying place was determined by the quickest time they recorded from either session. The first session was held in clear and warm weather. Armstrong set a benchmark fastest lap before Shwartzman and then Vips led. Hughes revised the overall fastest lap to 2:06.793 seconds for provisional pole position. David Beckmann was 0.051 seconds slower in second. Vips was third, early pace setter Armstrong fourth, and Sargeant fifth. Ticktum, in his first race driving the new F3 car, came sixth ahead of Ilott, Vesti, Shwartzman and Lundaard. Following them were the Italian duo of Leonardo Pulcini and Alessio Lorandi in 11th and 12th, and Felipe Drugovich, Verschoor, Maini, Sebastián Fernández, Ahmed, Liam Lawson, Habsburg, Keyvan Andres, Hon Chio Leong, David Schumacher, Flörsch, Fittipaldi, Andreas Estner, Lukas Dunner, Olli Caldwell, Alessio Deledda and Max Fewtrell. The top five drivers were separated by 0.619 seconds, while the faster Dallara cars' contributed to an average 3.5-second decrease in lap times. Four red flag stoppages occurred during the session. Fluids from Ahmed's car spilled onto the track en route to the pit lane after he struck a barrier at Lisboa corner. Fewtrell hit the outside barrier at Lisboa turn, and Caldwell stopped on the track after exiting Fisherman's Bend due to engine failure. The race director ended the session early when Tsunoda ran into a barrier at Maternity Bend.
Shwartzman led early in the second practice session, but Ticktum eventually went quicker. After that, with over five minutes left, Vips reset the unofficial circuit record to 2:06.569. Ilott was 0.568 seconds slower in second. Verschoor, Armstrong, Lawson, Ticktum, Maini, Shwartzman, Caldwell and Sargeant were third to tenth. Two different incidents necessitated two stoppages. Flörsch stopped against the barrier following the Melco hairpin due to an understeer. She stalled her car while reversing, which blocked the track. As a crane extricated Flörsch's car, Habsburg spun and stopped the session. Beckmann slid off course while braking for Police Corner with five minutes later. Ticktum was caught off guard and hit the rear of Beckmann's car at high speed, ending the session early. The stewards investigated Ticktum and imposed no penalty; they deemed him to have made "a significant attempt" to avoid Beckmann and a lack of time to notice double waved yellow flags to alert drivers to Ticktum's crash.
The second qualifying session was held in warmer weather than the first. It was first halted after ten minutes when Pulcini crashed; Fittipaldi was caught off guard by Pulcini's accident and hit the rear of his car. Before Armstrong crashed into an outside wall at Police turn and removed his front wing and right front tyre with 19 minutes remaining, he became the first driver to lap under the 2:06 mark. Vips reset the official track lap record to a 2:04.997—five seconds faster than the 2018 lap record—in the final seven minutes. The session ended with two minutes to go after a third stoppage, when Habsburg crashed and stopped on the circuit. Vips earned the pole position for the qualifying race. Shwartzman was 0.379 seconds slower in second place. Ilott, Lundgaard and Verschoor moved to third, fourth and fifth. Hughes fell from first to sixth, with Vesti and Maini seventh and eighth. Armstrong's crash put him ninth, Sargeant tenth, Habsburg eleventh and Fewtrell twelfth. Carlin mechanics rebuilt Ticktum's car; he had 20 minutes on the track and took 13th. Behind him the rest of the provisional order was Lorandi, Lawson, Drugovich, Caldwell, Fernández, Beckmann, Ahmed, Tsunoda, Andres, Schumacher, Dunner, Pulcini, Estner, Flörsch, Leong, Deledda and Fittipaldi.
Post-qualifying After qualifying, the stewards imposed a three-place grid penalty on Tsunoda, deeming him to have reversed in "an unexpected manner" to rejoin the circuit after venturing onto the Lisboa corner run-off area.
Qualifying classification Each of the driver's fastest lap times from the two qualifying sessions are denoted in bold.