Pepe Martí, Sebas Montoya and Oliver Goethe will contest the 70th Macau Grand Prix – FIA F3 World Cup in their Campos Racing-entered machinery this weekend
Despite the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship season came to an end in early September, there is still a final ride for the Dallara F3 2019-Mecachrome this year. The 70th Macau Grand Prix – FIA F3 World Cup will take place this weekend in the narrow, challenging streets of the former Portuguese colony. Campos Racing will run their three Dallara-built cars for previously announced Pepe Martí, Oliver Goethe and Sebas Montoya, a perfect mix of proven speed and talent. But the Guia Circuit is one of the most difficult, unforgiving tracks all around the world and nothing can be taken for granted.
Campos Racing already took part at the 2019 Macau Grand Prix, which was held as a non-championship round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship. On their first outing in Macau, the Valencia-based racing team already made it in the top-ten. Martí, Goethe and Montoya will get their first taste of the Macanese circuit this week, but they all feel confident ahead of their debut. Martí finished 5th in the drivers’ standings of the FIA Formula 3 Championship season with three wins to his name and will get another morale booster with his Campos Racing-run Dallara in new Red Bull colors. Goethe and Montoya completed three successful collective testing with Campos Racing in Jerez, Barcelona and Imola last October and they will provide an excellent starting point for Macau.
The Guia Circuit in Macau opened in 1954 and its layout hasn’t been modified since 1957. Despite its narrow bends, which leave no room for mistakes, it features top speeds of 260km/h in a Formula 3 car through the long straights separated by the quick Hotel Mandarin Oriental right-hander. Hotel Lisboa is always pretty demanding with most of racing incidents taking place at the slow right-hander. Police, Moorish or Melco are other classic names in Macau and key zones to set a competitive lap time.
First practice session is scheduled on Thursday at 02:00 with Q1 taking place later that day at 08:15. Friday will see a second free practice session at 02:30 with Q2 scheduled at 08:05. Saturday’s qualifying race, which consists of 10 laps, is set to start at 08:50. Sunday’s race is scheduled at 08:30 consisting of 15 laps. All times are CET. All the action will be streamed live on FIA’s YouTube channel.
Adrián Campos (Campos Racing Team Principal); “We are delighted to be back at the Macau Grand Prix, one of the most famous, iconic venues of Formula 3. It’s always a pretty difficult event as the Guia Circuit is very challenging even for very experienced drivers. You have no room for mistakes. It’s not just to be quick but intelligent and you need to have a bit of luck on your side as well. This said, we have a pretty competitive driver line-up and our cars proved to be solidly fast in every circumstance in recent collective tests. So, we expect to bring strong results home.”
Pepe Martí (Campos Racing Driver): “I am very excited for this weekend’s Macau FIA F3 World Cup. It is a unique experience and an event I’ve been very looking forward to since the start of the year. It’s a very technical high speed street circuit which will require very high concentration. It is the ultimate circuit for driver capabilities and I cannot wait to get started in my new white Red Bull Campos car. I want to thank the team and Red Bull for the opportunity and will try to make the most of it!”
Sebas Montoya (Campos Racing Driver): “I’m amazed to race on Macau circuit this weekend as it promises to be an exciting but challenging weekend. The mentality to approach this event is completely different because you don’t have to think about the next few races or about the points. It’s a unique race because you only have to push to the maximum all the whole way. You need to learn as much as possible to maximize your speed. It’s important to improve every time you are on track. It’s one of the last old-spirit race tracks in the world. So, it’s great to have the chance to race here.”
Oliver Goethe (Campos Racing Driver): “What an amazing opportunity it is to drive around the streets of Macau. It’s such a prestigious event to compete in. It is also great to be back with Campos Racing who I know will work extremely hard to try achieving a great result.”
