Macau, China – November 1999

The 46th Macau Grand Prix will be held on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of November. The streets of Macau will be turned into a race track for two days of motor racing. The Grand Prix will include Formula Three, sportcars, motorcycle races throughout the weekend.

The premier event of the Macau Grand Prix is the Formula Three

series. It serves as the “Master” event for Formula Three. In Europe,

young and aspiring drivers will compete in different national F-3

championships. At the end of the year, the top runners from those

national championship will come to Macau to test their mettle against

each other. It is the most important race in the world at that level.

Many of the best drivers in the last fifteen years used Macau as a

stepping stone to Formula One. Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger, Damon

Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen were some

of the drivers who have competed in the event. The race is divided into

two legs and the overall winner is determined by the combined results.

Ayrton Senna was the winner in 1983 with Hong Kong’s Theodore Racing. In 1983, the young Brazilian had just won the British F-3 Championship, but was not seriously pursued by F-1 teams at the time of his arrival in Macau (he was rejected by Brabham only a few weeks earlier). So he needed a strong performance in Macau to convince the racing world that he was for real.

On paper, the task was not easy. The entry list for 1983 was one of the strongest ever. The competitors included Roberto Guerrero (who already had two seasons in F-1), Martin Brundle, and Gerhard Berger. But on race day, Senna was unstoppable. No one was anywhere near him. He won the first leg by more than 5 seconds and the second leg by another 6 seconds.

A few weeks after Macau, he signed with the Toleman F-1 team and made his F-1 debut in the following season. Between 1984 and 1994, he won the Formula One title three times and became one of the greatest

drivers in F-1 history. But it was the Macau Grand Prix that gave him

the ticket to Formula One.

The 1990 edition was the most dramatic series in recent memory. Finland’s Mika Hakkinen, the reigning British F-3 champion, arrived in Macau as the clear favorite. He won the first leg comfortably and only needed to finish second in the 2nd leg to clinch the overall title. Only one man stood in his way. He was a relatively unknown German driver by the name of Michael Schumacher. Yes, that Michael Schumacher.

At the start of the second leg of the 1990 Macau Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher charged into the lead and was followed by Mika Hakkinen in the second place. Throughout the race, Schumacher could not shake off Hakkinen, who only needed to finish second. Hakkinen looked as if he would become the new Macau champion.

However, on the last corner of the last lap, Schumacher deliberately exposed an opening for Hakkinen to pass. But when Hakkinen drove through it to take the lead, Schumacher slammed his car into the

Flying Finn and knocked him out of the race. Hakkinen was forced to

retire right in front of the finish line. Meanwhile, Schumacher stormed

past the checkered flag and became the overall winner of the 1990 Macau

Grand Prix. As Michael Schumacher sprayed champagne on the podium,

Hakkinen buried his head in great disappointment.

The rivalry between the two drivers would resume many years later in

Formula One. Both would become world champions. In recent years, Mika

Hakkinen has said publicly that he has forgotten about the incident in

Macau, but friends close to him said otherwise. As for Schumacher,

the deliberate maneuver on the last corner of the 1990 Macau Grand Prix

would became a trademark in his career. It would repeat again and again

in Schumacher’s career. Just ask Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve

about it. But we saw it first in Macau.

If you could not attend the event, you can always visit the Grand

Prix Museum at the basement of the Macau Forum. They have simulators

where you can pretend to be real racecar drivers racing in Macau. The

winning cars driven by both Schumacher and Senna are also on display at

the museum.

Interesting Macau GP Info

In 1990, Michael Schumacher won the Macau Grand Prix. Mika Salo

and Eddie Irvine finished second and third respectively. Both

Schumacher and Irvine were teammates at Ferrari this year. When

Schumacher was injured at British Grand Prix, Ferrari enlisted Mika

Salo as the replacement. Thus, all three Ferrari drivers this season

were also the top three finishers in the 1990 Macau Grand Prix.

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