The 69th Macau Grand Prix F4: Chang Wins, But A New Star Is Born | Asia Motorsports Network – Renato Marques
Macau racer Andy Chang (Champ Motorsport) won his first-ever Macau Grand Prix this year continuing the path laid by Charles Leong (Theodore Blackjack Racing) who won the first two Formula 4 races in Macau.
Chang’s weekend started well, being immediately the fastest driver during the Qualifying sessions and starting from the pole position for Race 1 held on Saturday (November 19) afternoon.
Although Chang’s win makes history as the second Macau racer to win the event and his first, this year’s edition of the F4 race saw potentially an even more relevant moment with the confirmation of a new Asia Rising Star Gerrard Xie (Smart Life Racing) The 16-year-old Hong Kong racer showed tremendous quality and skills, finishing second in the main race and even defeating Chang by 2.084 seconds in Race 1.
Leong, winner of the two previous editions, could not do better than two third places in both races, highlighting also his lack of preparation for this year’s event.
Rumors say that Leong was in reality preparing to take a sit in this year’s Macau GT Cup, a situation that did not confirm at the last minute, making him opt for the F4.
In the main race, starting from the pole position, Xie started better and took the lead but the Safety Car put an end to those efforts almost immediately due to an early crash on Turn 1.
As soon as the Safety Car returned to the pits, Xie continued to widen the gap between himself and Leong (who was second at that time). Eventually, Leong could not keep up with the pace and was passed by Chang who started a pursuit of Xie.
This was until another crash, this time at Lisboa Bend and involving two cars, caused the pack to regroup once again, throwing away Xie’s efforts of building a comfortable gap over Chang.
At the restart, Chang took advantage of his experience and overtook Xie, starting a time-attack-style lap to create a gap from Xie to avoid any potential immediate retaliation.
Eventually, the gaps between first and second and second and third became too big to allow any overtaking, and with a clean driving without any mistakes, Chang took the checkered flag with an almost 6 seconds lead over Xie and 14 seconds over Leong.
After finishing second for two consecutive years, it was time for Chang to break the spell and climb to the top of the podium.
With a win in Race 1 and the second position in Race 2, Xie was the highlight of this edition not only due to the results achieved but for having done it by battling two very experienced Macau specialists. To this adds the fact that he was a rookie in Macau leaving the impression that we will soon be hearing a lot more of this rising new talent.
A last word to the Chinese F4 series, that lacking attractiveness and young blood to battle rising stars like Xie, needs to act fast in pursuing more talent and opportunities for youngsters. The pandemic brought an opportunity for the series to be highlighted in a major event as it is the Macau GP but seems like this opportunity is being missed in the evolution of the series.
With the expected return to “normality” for 2023, the Chinese F4 does need to make a big effort in the upcoming year if wants to continue to be featured in big events like the Macau GP.
Full results of the Macau Formula 4 and all the weekend races can be found here.
