Beginner's guide: What is the Macau GP?

The street race has been around in one form or another since 1954 and has steadily grown in stature. Over the years it has attracted several top-line racing drivers from all categories, including F1 legends Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna.

The luring factor of Macau is the nature of the circuit, with its tight confines, long straights and closeness to the barriers making it one of the most demanding race tracks in the world.

People often draw comparisons between Macau and the Monaco Grand Prix, although they couldn’t be more apart in terms of characteristics.

While Monaco is mostly made up of slow and medium speed corners with few places to show the full grunt of the engine, Macau has a long main straight and several elevation changes.

The layout of the Macau circuit makes it particularly challenging for F3 cars, which form the flagship race of the event. Every year several budding and established drivers join the F3 grid to battle it out for the F3 World Cup.

Daruvala's presence

This year’s line-up will be of particular interest to Indians, with Jehan Daruvala participating in it with defending champions Carlin.

Daruvala’s outing will come on the back of his rookie season in European F3, where he ended sixth in the drivers’ standings with one victory and two further podium finishes.

The Macau GP will be the ultimate test for the Mumbaikar, who has already proven to be strong around street circuits; his maiden F3 win came at Germany’s Norisring circuit.

But tackling Macau will be a far greater challenge, as attested by Narain Karthikeyan and Arjun Maini - the only two Indian drivers to take part in the iconic street race of the East.

Moreover, he will face stern opposition from his rivals, even though the field for 2017 is smallest in years. His fiercest rival be will be McLaren protege and Carlin teammate Lando Norris, who stormed to this year’s European F3 title with with nine wins.

Daruvala will hit the track for the first time on Thursday for FP1, which will be followed by qualifying 1 in the afternoon. Another practice session will be held on Saturday before the second qualifying.

Times from both qualifying sessions will be taken together to form grid for Saturday’s qualifying race. The results of qualifying race, in turn, will determine the order for the main race on Sunday.

Other races

While F3 is the main attraction of the Macau GP weekend, several other races will also take place concurrently.

The GT race has drawn several high-profile drivers, including Mahindra Formula E driver Felix Rosenqvist, Le Mans winner Romain Dumas, former F1 driver Lucas di Grassi and DTM champion Marco Wittmann.

The entire WTCC field will also be present for the penultimate round of the FIA-sanctioned series. And finally, for fans of two-wheel motorsport, there will also be a bike race.