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The sudden announcement last week by the Macau Grand Prix that the FIA Formula 3 World Cup would be over and replaced by the FIA Formula Regional World Cup has sparked widespread opinion, not all positive, both in Macau and abroad. For Gian Carlo Minardo, who was chairman of the FIA single-seater commission until March last year, it was the right decision.
The Formula 3 brand has a history with Macau for more than four decades and its unexpected change – something that had been talked about for months behind the scenes but never publicly – took the vast majority of participants by surprise. On the other hand, the name of the regional formula, besides being unattractive, does not mean much to those who follow the sport closely. Therefore, this “shift” by the FIA, that is, signing a three-year contract with the Macau entity in 2023 for the organization of the Guia Circuit Formula 3 World Cup, is naturally seen as a “setback”.
Gian Carlo Minardi supports the measures of the International Federation, especially because “the current regional formula, originally the European Formula 3, later renamed so as not to be confused with the International Formula 3, was born with the characteristics of the old Formula 3, the one that used to race in Macau”, explained the former boss of the Minardi Formula 1 team (now Visa Cash App RB F1 Team) when asked by HM.
The Italian, who resigned from the FIA due to the lack of time to combine the position with the management of the Imola circuit, made it clear that the reason why Formula 3 does not go to the Macau Special Administrative Region is, first of all, for security reasons.
“Today, the current F3 international cars are no longer suitable for the track in terms of weight and power, so the FIA has chosen a more suitable formula for safety reasons”, he explained, adding that “Macau remains a difficult track due to the speeds reached on the circuit and the poor escapes”, which is why “I agree with the FIA’s choice”.
Why now?
Curiously, the question of whether the current Formula 3 is suitable for the Guia Circuit did not arise during its visits to the Macau SAR in 2019 and 2023, and even several interventions were made to enable the Macau city circuit to receive FIA Grade 2 homologation for the first time in 2019, a necessary requirement to accommodate these single-seaters.
However, Gian Carlo Minardi, who will only be chairman of the FIA Single-Seater Commission in April 2022, said confidently that “the performance of cars is constantly improving and it is certain that the tracks, especially Macau, cannot improve the infrastructure.”
The Italian does not understand why there is criticism of the end of F3 on the streets of the region. “I think the issue has not been addressed correctly”, stressing that “the regional formulas today are better than the old F3 that made Macau famous”, and that the most “important thing is to keep racing”.
However, the Italian admitted that “perhaps in 2019 this issue was not well assessed and this makes it a problem for me to compete in international F3 in 2023.”
Other dilemmas
Even if Formula 3 continues to race in Macau, there will be problems this year. Dallara’s current single-seater is nearing the end of its life cycle and will cease production at the end of 2024. As the Italian manufacturer focuses on building new cars, teams in the FIA Formula 3 Championship are already struggling with a shortage of spare parts, which will be more noticeable as the end of the season approaches and will be a particularly delicate issue in a race like a Grand Prix, which by its nature requires a large number of replacement parts.
On the other hand, in 2019, Formula 1 management took over the rights to Formula 3 events, replacing GP3. However, the organizers of the FIA Formula 3 Championship have never served as co-organizers of the Macau Grand Prix Formula 3, so the task of promoting the Macau Grand Prix was handed over to the FIA itself, which does not have this profession today. This incompetence was reflected in the fact that several midfielders were not confirmed until the last minute in the last Macau race, and even the team refused to go to the east and had difficulty filling the starting positions.
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