Macau Grand Prix: how it began 70 years ago, its champions like Ayrton Senna, and how it changed city’s ‘criminal’ image
- With 2023 marking the race’s 70th edition, we talk to its most recent local champion and look back at how the spectacle has thrilled generations of fans
Andy Chang Wing-chung tells a story about how his mother likes to show off a photo that shows him – aged three – gaping in wonder down in the grandstand, there by the famed first corner, as the Macau Grand Prix screams past.
Twenty-three years after that photo was taken, he found himself up there on the victory dais last year, having claimed the 2022 Macau Grand Prix for himself.
“It was a dream come true,” says Chang. “Every time I watched the race I wondered what it would feel like, being on top of that podium. I think every kid in Macau grows up having the same dream.”
The Macau Grand Prix has grown as the city has, from backwater to global trading centre, born almost out of boredom in 1954, when the post-war city was almost on its knees with an economy devastated by the United States’ decision to limit imports of Macau fireworks, one of the few major industries the city had, and a major source of cash during the pre-war period.
Now, the racing spectacle is set to celebrate its 70th edition over the weekends of November 11 and 12 and November 16 and 19, having thrilled generations of fans while carving a unique niche in motorsports as the proving ground for future world champions.
The late, great Ayrton Senna won in Macau back in 1983, racing in the Formula Three cars that first appeared that year, helping to establish the event as world-class.
