MARCIELLO AND BROWNING STAR OVER THE STREETS OF MACAU ON P ZERO TYRES
Reigning GT World Challenge Europe champion Raffaele Marciello brought his AMG-Mercedes career to a close with his second victory at the FIA GT World Cup, becoming the only driver to win the famous Macau GT event twice – on both occasions with Pirelli tyres.
Marciello converted victory in Saturday’s qualification race, clinching the Pirelli Pole Position Award, to a win in Sunday’s main 16-lap race despite a safety car period.
The Formula 3 World Cup was interrupted halfway through the 15 laps by a lengthy red flag period for barrier repairs, but Hitech driver Luke Browning was the star of the weekend after winning the qualification race and dominating the action on Sunday. The Williams Driver Academy member, who finished 15th in his rookie season of Formula 3 this year, joins an illustrious list of former Macau winners – several of whom went on to become Formula 1 champions.
MATTEO BRAGA, CIRCUIT ACTIVITY MANAGER
“Having four different brands in the top four of the FIA GT World Cup underlines the adaptability of our Pirelli P Zero DHF tyres to different cars and circumstances. It’s been four years since we were last here in Macau, due to Covid-19 restrictions, and during that time we have cycled through two different generations of tyres – yet the teams were able to quickly understand how to extract the best performance from the DHF on this unique track. Exactly the same was true for Formula 3, where the tyre we developed for the international championship proved to be very well-suited to the specialised demands of the Macau circuit as well, thanks also to the data collected throughout the season. We received a very warm welcome from all the fans and media here in Macau, underlining the outstanding popularity of this iconic venue, and we already look forward coming back next year.”
FIA GT WORLD CUP
The 20 GT3 cars all used Pirelli’s P Zero DHF tyres, as run on a variety of GT cars in championships all over the world: providing direct technology transfer to the ultra high performance P Zero tyres seen on the road.
Marciello, the GT winner in 2019 as well, said: “We’ve used Pirelli tyres all year and they have always given us plenty of success. This weekend was no different, but the track was even quicker, right from the very first sessions. Tyre degradation wasn’t an issue; we’re obviously used to doing much longer stints on these tyres.”
FORMULA 3 WORLD CUP
The 26 Formula 3 cars used the medium-compound P Zero tyres, also seen on this year’s FIA Formula 3 Championship. These were well-suited to the rapid Macau Guia circuit, providing an ideal compromise between durability and grip throughout the 6.120-kilometre lap. “Pirelli did a really good job”, commented Browning. “It was really enjoyable to feel the grip and the medium compound was perfect for the conditions. It was a difficult race to manage with all the restarts and safety cars, but it feels truly humbling to seal this result and join the incredible list of past winners.”
NEXT RACE
The 70th Macau Grand Prix took place during the same weekend as Formula 1 in Las Vegas (which concludes its 2023 season next weekend) as well as the final round of the World Rally Championship in Japan. As all these Pirelli-equipped series draw to a close, the GT season continues at the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi on December 10: part of the 350 motorsport competitions that Pirelli contests each year.
