The Macao Grand Prix

I think it's time to have a topic about the fantastic track of Macao and it's history.

First of all some pics :

Sato in 2001



Wirdheim in 2001



Copyright Official site of the Macao GP

Two other pictures

Michael Schumacher in 1990



Mika Hakkinen in 1990



Copyright unknown

It is ......MACAU ....http://www.racecorpo.../Macau_2005.htm

Or Macao in Portuguese, I believe

The most amazing thing is that I believe that the track layout have not been changed since it originally started at least 50 years ago!

Well, the start has been moved from just before Mandarin Bend to just before Reservoir Bend if that counts........

A French bike rider was killed in practice recently...

Bob, any pics of the proper Macao GP, ie before the F3s got involved ?

I attended the Macau Grand Prix from 1989-96 managing the Unisys part of the MST / Unisys timing and scoring operation-- so here’s a couple of comments.
The old start line was just before the Mandarin Oriental Hotel with the pits and paddock area close by, they were very basic and extremely cramped.
Macau in the 90’s was in transition- fast updating itself from its sleepy Portuguese colony style of life to Chinese takeover in 1999 .The Grand Prix too was growing in stature, so it was inevitable that the whole infrastructure had to be updated.
Much of Macau’s recent development is from land reclamation ,so along with the building of the new Jet Foil and Ferry terminal (the main transportation link with Hong Kong) came a smart new race centre-known as the Grand Prix building, placed just after R.Bend. This featured 30+ modern pits, an ample paddock area with a multi level underground car park/support races paddock, a three story administration block with race control, time-keeping , press and media centre as well as ample hospitality and corporate entertainment areas and a great pizza place!.
The rest of the track remained more or less the same, the main area of development being the approach to the Lisboa Bend-by the Hotel Lisboa, one of the late Teddy Yip’s Macau properties. (Yip it will be remembered was the driving force behind the development of the Grand Prix,and the Theodore race team)
The racers approach Lisboa at huge speed and the road there is actually quite wide—4 lanes of traffic during the rest of the year. The temptation was always to try to out brake everybody –we regularly saw 5 abreast racing ! Inevitably it didn’t work and many races were red flagged with the narrow Lisbao blocked—this was equally true of all the local heroes in their Toyotas and Hondas as well as the Guia Touring and F3 “experts”. Gradually, over the years, the inside kerbing into Lisboa was narrowed and moved further up the straight towards Mandarin, thus removing some (not all!) of the temptation.
I saw some great races there-the famous M Schumacher- Hakkinen clash in 1990 plus Coulthard’s win in 1991. The Guia races were always great fun-BMW über alles, and I was always very impressed by the bikers and their sheer ability-not to mention agility- in the Motor Cycle GP.
It’s well worth a visit!

David Fox

Originally posted by David McKinney
Or Macao in Portuguese, I believe

No,

MACAU is the correct spelling in portuguese.

Dont know how it is in chinese .....

Neri

Originally posted by Neri Moreira


No,

MACAU is the correct spelling in portuguese.

Dont know how it is in chinese .....

Neri

Was it always thus, Neri?
Reports in the '50s seemed unsure whether to call it Macao or Macau. I always assumed the former was the Portuguese version
Or was it changed at some stage to the English spelling?

Originally posted by David McKinney


Was it always thus, Neri?
Reports in the '50s seemed unsure whether to call it Macao or Macau. I always assumed the former was the Portuguese version
Or was it changed at some stage to the English spelling?

Well David

“Always” is a lot of time

I’ve been around since 1955 and I remember since my first school days as a little boy in a fascist “empire” from Lisbon to Macau, it was written this way MACAU.

Of course I am pretty sure that things were not ALWAYS like this and before it was written as MACAO, but I don’t know if it was only MACAO (before) and changed to MACAU at some point, or if it was written in both ways and, at some point, it was assumed to write only as MACAU.

If I do a search in Google (Portuguese) I find only MACAU in recent (around 50-60 years) documents, and I find MACAO in docs or paintings around 1930.

Summing up everything

Sorry David, I’m not sure

Yours
Neri

Thanks for checking Neri

Macau... Macao... where the hell IS Mumbai

Wasn't that Bombay?

Wikipedia says:

The form "Macao" was the original Portuguese spelling, and has been retained in most European languages. In modern Portuguese, the correct spelling is "Macau". During the 20th century, the official spelling "Macau" became more and more common in English-language sources, including most print media.

Since the handover of sovereignty, the government of Macau considers "Macao" the official English spelling of the name, whereas "Macau" remains the official spelling in Portuguese. This is the practice followed in official documents such as passports and immigration forms.

The pinyin transcription Aomen has occasionally been used in English as if it were the official name for Macau. However, this is not the case, as only "Macao" is official in English.

Well I never

Go on, David, you must have....