The 2023 Macau Grand Prix (formally the 70th Macau Grand Prix – FIA F3 World Cup) was a motor race for Formula Three cars held on the streets of Macau on 19 November 2023. The Macau Grand Prix served as a non-championship round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship. The race itself was made up of two races: a ten-lap qualifying race that decided the starting grid for the fifteen-lap main event. The 2023 race was the 70th running of the Macau Grand Prix, the 38th for Formula Three cars and the fifth edition of the FIA F3 World Cup.
Background and entry list
The Macau Grand Prix is a race considered by drivers as a stepping stone to higher motor racing categories such as Formula One, and is Macau'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, before the COVID-19 pandemic caused heavy disruptions, particularly concerning entry of foreign drivers into Macau. This caused the race to be held as a domestic Formula 4 event for three years, serving as a round of the Chinese Formula 4 Championship.
In 2023, Formula 3 and other international series returned to the streets of Macau. As the Grand Prix celebrated its 70th anniversary, the organizers expanded the event over two weekends, with the first weekend seeing mainly domestic and Asian series, while the high-profile international series and the Formula 3 title race were held over the second weekend.
Entry list All competitors used an identical Dallara F3 2019 chassis with a 3.4 L (207 cu in) naturally-aspirated V6 engine developed by Mecachrome. All teams competed with tyres supplied by Pirelli. +TeamNo.Driver Trident Motorsport 1 Richard Verschoor 2 Roman Staněk 3 Ugo Ugochukwu Jenzer Motorsport 5 Max Esterson 6 Charlie Wurz 7 Matías Zagazeta SJM Theodore Prema Racing 8 Dino Beganovic 9 Gabriele Minì 10 Paul Aron Hitech Pulse-Eight 11 Luke Browning 12 Isack Hadjar 14 Alex Dunne Campos Racing 15 Pepe Martí 16 Sebastián Montoya 17 Oliver Goethe Van Amersfoort Racing 18 Noel León 19 Sophia Flörsch 20 Tommy Smith ART Grand Prix 21 Laurens van Hoepen 22 Christian Mansell 23 Nikola Tsolov Rodin Carlin 24 Zane Maloney 25 Dan Ticktum MP Motorsport 27 Dennis Hauger 28 Mari Boya 29 Marcus ArmstrongSource:
Team changes Regular season entry PHM Racing by Charouz confirmed they would not take part in the event whilst they completed their takeover of the Charouz entry.
Driver changes Trident Racing and Jenzer Motorsport entered the event with completely different rosters from the regular season. 2019 Macau Grand Prix winner Richard Verschoor, Formula 2 driver Roman Staněk and reigning Euro 4 champion Ugo Ugochukwu competed for Trident; former Carlin driver Max Esterson, and FRECA drivers Charlie Wurz and Matías Zagazeta drove for Jenzer. Prema Racing retained Dino Beganovic and Paul Aron, and brought across Alpine Academy member Gabriele Minì from Hitech. Hitech replaced Minì with Formula 2 race winner Isack Hadjar. Campos Racing kept Pepe Martí and replaced Australians Christian Mansell and Hugh Barter with Sebastián Montoya from Hitech and Oliver Goethe from Trident. Mansell moved to ART Grand Prix, joining Nikola Tsolov and FRECA graduate Laurens van Hoepen. Sophia Flörsch entered her third Macau Grand Prix with her 2018 team Van Amersfoort Racing, joined by season regular Tommy Smith and reigning Euroformula Open champion Noel León. Carlin entered the event with two-time Macau Grand Prix winner Dan Ticktum and Formula 2 driver Zane Maloney. MP Motorsport was to retain their regular season drivers Franco Colapinto and Mari Boya, alongside 2023 IndyCar Rookie of the Year Marcus Armstrong. However, in the week leading up to the event, the team announced their F2 driver Dennis Hauger would race in place of Colapinto, with the Argentinian recovering from an injury.
Practice and qualifying Two 40-minute practice sessions were held across the weekend: the first on Thursday morning, ahead of the first qualifying session, and the second a day later, ahead of the second qualifying session. Qualifying itself was also divided into two 40-minute sessions on Thursday and Friday, with the fastest time set by each driver from either session counting towards their final starting position for the qualification race.
The first practice session was held in clear and dry conditions. Prema Racing's Gabriele Minì was fastest with a time of 2:06.871s, four tenths ahead of Hitech's Luke Browning and Trident's 2019 winner Richard Verschoor. The MP Motorsport pair of Mari Boya and Dennis Hauger completed the top five, with ART's Nikola Tsolov, Carlin's two-time winner Dan Ticktum and the Hitechs of Isack Hadjar and Alex Dunne slotting into the top ten behind. The session was disrupted only once when ART's Laurens van Hoepen crashed at Lisboa at the 26-minute mark and brought out the red flags. Dunne also crashed at the same corner, but was able to get going again on his own, avoiding a stoppage.
The first qualifying session was held on Thursday afternoon, in clear and dry conditions. After all but five cars had set laps, Jenzer's Charlie Wurz was fastest ahead of the MP pair of Marcus Armstrong and Boya, albeit with times almost 20 seconds slower than the practice pace. Prema and VAR had waited longer to leave the pits in hope of a clear track, but were unable to set laps before Campos's Sebastián Montoya crashed at Lisboa to bring out the red flags. Shortly after the resumption, Browning went into first place with a time of 2:07.668s as the first competitive lap times were put on the board. Minì was next to claim first place, 0.069s ahead of Browning, before another stoppage occurred. Trident's Ugo Ugochukwu had gone into the runoff at Lisboa, and took several minutes before he was able to reverse out and continue driving. A flurry of fast laps after the restart saw the order change, but after most of the field had got one lap in, Minì was back on top, leading Hauger and Armstrong. Browning had waited out this round of laps and was just about to start his next flying lap when the session was interrupted again. Carlin's Zane Maloney had hit the barriers and stopped his stricken car at turn 16. After 17 minutes of barrier repairs, the session was restarted with just under ten minutes left. Browning was able to get two laps in this time to claim provisional pole position with his 2:06.018s second lap. The Prema cars once again waited longer in the pits, but when they ultimately came out, Minì retook first place with a time of 2:05.521s as his teammate Dino Beganovic slotted into third. Hauger was fourth, ahead of Dunne and Hadjar. Armstrong was seventh, while both Tsolov and Campos's Oliver Goethe left it late to put in their last attempts, demoting Ticktum to tenth.
The second practice session was held in clear, dry and slightly colder conditions than the day before. Prema was on top once again, albeit this time with Paul Aron clocking in a 2:06.327s lap. Browning continued his run of second places, this time only 0.029s behind. Boya, Dunne and Beganovic completed the top five, with Trident's Roman Staněk, Hadjar, Goethe, Campos's Pepe Martí and Wurz slotting in behind. This second session was disrupted more often than the first: Aron stopped at the Melco hairpin, causing a traffic jam and a red flag. Both Browning and VAR's Tommy Smith ran into the Lisboa run-off, causing two VSC periods, before Tsolov crashed at Faraway Hill. Thursday frontrunner Minì did not go out after this final interruption, explaining his absence from the top ten.
The second qualifying session was held on Friday afternoon, in clear and dry conditions. Before any drivers could set laps, Tsolov crashed out in turn 17, heavily damaging his car and prompting a lengthy red flag. On the restart, Jenzer's Max Esterson entered the fast lane into the path of Martì, with the latter breaking his front wing and having to pit again right after. Boya was the first to lay down a lap of 2:07.530s, before he was beaten by multiple drivers, with Browning slotting into first place with a 2:06.827s lap. Traffic ruined multiple drivers' attempts, but Armstrong and Hauger were not among those and surpassed Browning's time. By now, Armstrong's time would have put him into second on the grid, with only Minì's time from the previous day faster. The whole field now pitted for new tyres, but once again no one would be able to set a time as Hadjar spun around on the formation lap. When Montoya then also stopped at the Melco hairpin, red flags were brought out again. Browning was among the first drivers to set a lap on the restart, slotting into first place and also surpassing Minì's time from Thursday with a 2:05.435s lap. Minì responded to close the gap to 0.006s, but shortly afterwards, Ugochukwu crashed and caused another interruption. The session was restarted with five minutes to go, setting up a final one-lap shootout, but that did not happen as Hadjar crashed and the session was ended early without anyone else setting a lap. Browning thereby claimed pole position by the closest margin in Macau Grand Prix history.
Qualifying classification Each of the driver's fastest lap times from the two qualifying sessions are denoted in bold. + Final qualifying classificationDriverTeam111 Luke BrowningHitech Pulse-Eight2:06.01822:05.4351—129 Gabriele MinìSJM Theodore Prema Racing2:05.52112:05.4412 +0.006238 Dino BeganovicSJM Theodore Prema Racing2:06.13132:05.5183 +0.0833412 Isack HadjarHitech Pulse-Eight2:06.36462:05.5574 +0.1224529 Marcus ArmstrongMP Motorsport2:06.71472:05.7325 +0.2975614 Alex DunneHitech Pulse-Eight2:06.15852:05.7556 +0.3206717 Oliver GoetheCampos Racing2:06.83492:06.0927 +0.6577827 Dennis HaugerMP Motorsport2:06.13542:06.64314 +0.700893 Ugo UgochukwuTrident Motorsport2:08.280192:06.1678 +0.73291028 Mari BoyaMP Motorsport2:07.946172:06.1929 +0.757101115 Pepe MartíCampos Racing2:08.034182:06.26410 +0.81111121 Richard VerschoorTrident Motorsport2:07.064112:06.32311 +0.888121325 Dan TicktumRodin Carlin2:06.985102:06.46012 +1.025131410 Paul AronSJM Theodore Prema Racing2:07.108122:06.47513 +1.040141523 Nikola TsolovART Grand Prix2:06.7558—26 +1.320151624 Zane MaloneyRodin Carlin2:07.834162:06.78915 +1.363161719 Sophia FlörschVan Amersfoort Racing2:08.966242:06.91216 +1.47717186 Charlie WurzJenzer Motorsport2:07.353132:07.21917 +1.784181918 Noel LeónVan Amersfoort Racing2:07.368142:07.50419 +1.93319202 Roman StaněkTrident Motorsport2:07.570152:07.43318 +1.99820215 Max EstersonJenzer Motorsport2:08.429212:07.50720 +2.072212221 Laurens van HoepenART Grand Prix2:08.651222:07.54021 +2.105222316 Sebastián MontoyaCampos Racing2:44.434262:07.65622 +2.221232422 Christian MansellART Grand Prix2:08.329202:08.04923 +2.61424257 Matías ZagazetaJenzer Motorsport2:08.769232:08.48924 +3.054252620 Tommy SmithVan Amersfoort Racing2:09.071252:10.22625 +3.63626Sources: Bold time indicates the faster of the two times that determined grid order.
Qualifying race