Macau’s Guia circuit has a reputation for being brutally unforgiving. With drivers negotiating the streets at high speeds and millimetres from the walls, it is inevitable that some accidents will happen. But that does not excuse the 12 red-flag periods that occurred during qualifying for this year’s Macau Grand Prix.
Yes, there are some mitigating factors that explain the volume of incidents, aside from just a tricky track. After all, this is the first time Formula Regional cars have run around Macau’s streets as the category is replacing FIA F3 for the governing body’s single-seater World Cup for this year, meaning teams do not have a bank of data to call upon for the best set-ups and lines around the circuit in these particular machines.
Then there was the unusually wet opening to this 71st edition of the event with both practice sessions and the first 40-minute qualifying segment all being held in the rain. This left the drivers’ first experience at full speed being in the crucial final qualifying session.
But, instead of adapting to these circumstances and turning the boldness down a notch, some of the drivers appeared to become more desperate with each passing red flag, aware of a dwindling number of minutes remaining and the need to get a decent time on the board.
Cue more errors.
Dino Beganovic, who was an innocent victim having stumbled upon the stranded car of Rintaro Sato after the Japanese hit the wall at Moorish, called the number of red flags “embarrassing”. He is absolutely right.
It is also right for the FIA to have intervened. All of the drivers were summoned to an additional briefing on Friday night, where it was stressed that things must improve - not only from a safety perspective, but also to help preserve the image of this historic fixture that was at risk of being tarnished.
That is before mentioning the knock-on impact of all the delays. The near two hours it took to almost complete the second qualifying session (it was still a few minutes under its scheduled duration) meant the poor bikers lost the chance to finally sample the track for the first time, having been denied by the rain until that point.
And the fact the FIA officials did intervene also demonstrates how the governing body’s Single-Seater Commission president Emanuele Pirro – someone who has tasted victory around Macau – views driving standards as one of the key areas he wants to improve.
Speaking before that second qualifying session on Friday, he told Motorsport: “Motorsport has made huge progress in passive safety, in protecting a driver during an accident. On the contrary, in active safety – in making sure an accident doesn’t happen – we have gone backwards. Because the feeling of safety for drivers made them dare drive beyond what they should do.
“I think it’s the responsibility of the FIA to make sure that this active safety is the focus of the future to make sure that less crashes happen. You know the number of safety cars [in various championships] and it’s not the fault of the race director that he calls too many safety cars, it’s the fault of drivers who do crash too much.”
Pirro says the FIA is now developing ways of reinforcing the message that things must improve. “You cannot ask drivers to be wiser because they’re there to do the best they can, they’re there to win races so, if they see any weakness or any way they can gain an advantage, they will,” he added. Instead, Pirro believes there is a need to “whistle and take actions” to punish bad driving.
An example of how the FIA is tackling this comes in the form of greater training for officials.
The organisation wants punishments to be aligned between all of the junior single-seater categories to provide consistency and encourage bad habits to be stamped out, such as ensuring drivers are sanctioned if they fail to heed yellow flags.
Such a focus on driving standards has to be welcomed. But, in terms of this year’s Macau GP, the jury is still out over whether the additional briefing had the desired effect.
There were a couple of clumsy crashes at the start of Saturday’s qualifying race but then the return of the rain and the subsequent red flag and later completion of the remaining laps behind the safety car mean it is impossible to tell yet if drivers have truly taken note.
For the sake of finally having some great single-seater action at Macau this year, it is important that they have.
