2021 Formula 3 Asian Championship

[Aislabie]

Round Seven of the Asian Formula Three Championship is its crown jewel event: the Macau Grand Prix. Several unfamiliar drivers have descended on the series for the event, which is also the finale of the inaugural Formula Three World Cup. These include Victor Martins (who finished 2nd at Zandvoort), Klaus Vendetta (6th) and Matteo Nannini (7th), all of whom could win the World Cup at their first attempt.

In qualifying, Ye Yifei claimed a definitive pole position ahead of Ayumu Iwasa. The leading guest driver was Klaus Vendetta in fourth place (just behind Kwon Sung-Tae), while Victor Martins - the World Cup favourite - had a shocking time navigating the crowded Macau streets and could only post the 16th-fastest time. And the streets were truly very crowded: the organisers had not chosen to split the runners or anything, which meant that all 30 entrants were out on track at once trying to secure one of the 26 starting places. Martin Cao, Hibiki Taira, Tony Wai-leuk and Olga Timofeeva were the unlucky four, their laptimes reflecting the very real difficulty of navigating other cars who are on in- or out-laps more than their actual skill.

In the race, the drama started right away as Roy Nissany tried a very ambitious move against Victor Martins. The French World Cup hopeful refused to be bullied off his line with the result that both cars ended up in the armco and out the race. For Martins, this was absolutely catastrophic: at only three points behind the respective winners of the Sol de Mayo Grand Prix (TBC) and Masters of Europe (Gabriel Hoffmann), neither of whom were present in Macau. Essentially, almost any finish would have been enough for Martins.

Iwasa too had an awful start to his race. He didn't end up in the wall; indeed, he didn't end up anywhere in a hurry. A missed shift off the startline saw some half a dozen cars barrel past him. In taking avoiding action, both Vendetta and McManus also lost ground. Presley Martono - the young Indonesian starting back in eighth - had just enough time to react and change direction, but he kept his foot in and emerged from the first corner in third behind Ye and Kwon Sung-Tae. Overtaking opportunities are scarce at Macau, so the Jagonya Ayam team knew they had to get creative: they called Martono into the pits first of the frontrunners, and K-Apex were caught napping. The undercut was enough to get him up to second place, but Ye retained a comfortable lead at the front of the race.

After seventeen gruelling laps, Ye Yifei came through to be the first ever representative of the People's Republic of China to win the Macau Grand Prix. This also earned him 25 points towards the World Cup - just three fewer than Vendetta's combined total of 28 points from a 6th place and 8th at the last two events.



IIDOTR is Presley Martono for making up six positions from his starting place at Macau of all places.
ROTR is Roy Nissany, who interfered decisively in the World Cup with a clumsy move for P16.

[Aislabie]

Round Eight of the Asian Formula Three Championship, the teams and drivers arrived at the Diriyah Street Circuit in Riyadh under the watchful eyes of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and several hundred of his closest relatives and advisors. The hosts have also entered their own guest team for this round, a team that includes female racing driver Reema Jaffali, who (along with her fellow countrywomen) recently gained the right to drive not only on the racetrack but also on public roads.

In qualifying, Jaffali was decidedly not-last: only 21st of 24 runners, but not last. Last was the struggling Davit Kopalayan, who is looking increasingly unlikely to keep his seat for 2022. Ye Yifei probably won't be here either: the Macau Grand Prix winner put in another stunning lap to claim pole position and strengthen his case to progress up the ladder to Formula Two for next season. His Championship rival Kwon Sung-Tae qualified in second, ahead of McManus, Iwasa and Omar Aswat.

In the race, the squiggly nature of the Diriyah circuit did little to encourage action or overtaking - but that did serve to make each of the overtakes that did occur all the more special. Several of the best of them came from Singaporean Danial Frost. After a dreadful qualifying left him in 19th on the grid, his deftness on the brakes helped him to make several moves into the Turn 18 right-hander in a way that nobody else got the hang of to the same extent. Indeed, by the end of the race, Frost had managed to climb all the way up the order to 10th and an all-important point.

However, the very best overtake did not belong to Frost, but to Kwon Sung-Tae: not only was his move for the lead of the race and potentially the overall win, but at the Turn 1 left-hander on the final lap. The Korean compromised his own exit, banking on Ye Yifei not having enough room to return the favour through the following turn. And sure enough, the Chinese driver couldn't force his way back past. Kwon made his car as wide as he could through the next fifteen consecutive lefts and rights, even compromising his apex speed through 17 to break the slipstream down the backstraight. The chequered flag waved, and as Kwon came over the line, enormous fireworks went off in the distance to celebrate the race win.



IIDOTR is Danial Frost for absolutely burgling a point from this race.
ROTR is Davit Kopalayan. He's really not done well this year.

[Aislabie]

The penultimate round of the 2021 Asian Formula Three Championship is the inaugural Kuwait Grand Prix: the brand new Kuwait Motor Town facility is no doubt ambitious to one day run this event further up the motorsport ladder in F1 or F2, but for now it is one of the most important events on the calendar for young Asian drivers.

In qualifying, the Red Dragon Junior Team managed to lock out the front row for the first time all season. Surprisingly, it was Xu Shiqing ahead of Ye Yifei, even though the earlier rounds this season have seen Ye be the faster of the pair. Is Xu starting to come of age? Further back, Michael McManus, Salva Al Bashir and Ryunnosuke Takashi all put in impressive laps to round off the top five. However, you may have noticed an absence of K-Apex drivers in that list: the Korean team just couldn't get their set-ups right for this vital round of the Championship.

In the race, the three consecutive long straights created plenty of opportunities for brave drivers to try overtaking moves, either on the straights or under braking. Jagonya Ayam had clearly set up their cars with exactly this in mind: despite Martono and Nissany having qualified in ninth and eleventh, they were clearly racy from the moment the lights went out. The two cars ran low-drag set-ups that made them the two fastest cars in a straight line, and both of their drivers reaped the rewards. Nissany gained six places, but his teammate went one better and gained seven across the 19-lap race.

That put the 21-year-old Indonesian into second place, but try as he might he just couldn't close down the gap to the race winner. That winner was Aspire's McManus: the Scot gaining an all-important 12 points on Kwon Sung-Tae and 7 points on Ye Yifei ahead of the Boxing Day decider at Mount Panorama. Should Red Dragon have imposed team orders to help their prodigy's Championship charge? That remains to be seen for now.



IIDOTR is Presley Martono for climbing from nowhere onto the podium.
ROTR is K-Apex for producing their worst performance of the season at such a critical time.

[Aislabie]

The finale of the 2021 Asian Formula Three Championship has arrived. There are two title contenders left in the running: on 88 points is Ye Yifei; winner of the Korean Super Prix and Macau Grand Prix, he has been on a roll ever since Singapore with absolutely no room for his rivals to falter. On 81 points is Kwon Sung-Tae; winner of the Grand Prix of Java and Saudi Vision 2030 Trophy. Michael McManus has won more events than either of them, but even with pole and a win he cannot get more than 86 points due to his tendency to run hot-and-cold. There are also a bunch of Australian carnies in the area, because we're in Bathurst!

In qualifying, K-Apex absolutely held the upper hand. They locked out the front row with Song ahead of Kwon; crucially, the Red Dragon on Row Two was not Ye but Xu, who continued his sudden strong form from Kuwait here at The Mountain. The local entries, however, did not perform well - leading to local TV commentator Paul Morris speculating that the series might have de-tuned the engines of guest drivers to make sure they didn't get in the way. (I haven't been by the way - just really weird rolls this season for them.) Whatever the reason, this was going to be a race dominated by the same cast of characters who had lit up the season so far.

In the race, nobody could touch K-Apex, and not even Championship challenger Kwon could challenge his teammate Ki-Hyun Song. The mercurial Korean showing why so many observers think he is just as likely as his teammate to progress up the single seater ladder. He pulled out and maintained a comfortable four-second lead over his teammate, with Xu Shiqing a further six seconds back. Xu was about a second and a half ahead of a big train that contained his teammate; this was no good, as Red Dragon needed him to progress to secure the title.

As the laps ticked away, Ye just couldn't get through the defences of sixth-placed McManus. The Aspire driver had kept Ye behind to take the Singapore win, but this was considerably more pressure, and the stakes were considerably higher. With Ye needing to make up two places, K-Apex sent radio messages to their drivers to confirm that "all systems" were "running normally"; a thinly-veiled "hold position" order. The Koreans did exactly that, taking a one-two with Song as race winner. What would happen further back?

Not enough! Ye Yifei was stuck in seventh place - his worst race finish all season - to lose the Championship title to Kwon Sung-Tae by a single point.



IIDOTR is Kwon Sung-Tae for overturning a seven-point deficit to win the title.
ROTR is Red Dragon for failing to use team orders at Kuwait, which could have put Ye on 94 points rather than 92.

[Aislabie]

I need to sleep before work tomorrow, so I'm not putting them on the Wiki right now, but here are the final standings of the 2021 Asian Formula Three Drivers Championship:



Big shout out to Muizz Musyaffa for gaining five places with his very last finish of the season. Congratulations to Ciaran for the double-title with K-Apex, and to CarloSpace for running him to the very closest margins.