Philippe: Macau is a “special place”

ART Grand Prix will make their first appearance at the Macau Grand prix for a decade this week, and Team Principal Sébastien Philippe has labelled the street track as a “special place,” as the 2019 race winners eye up victory at the Guia Circuit.

The last time that the French team raced at the prestigious event was in 2009, when Sam Bird, Valtteri Bottas and the late Jules Bianchi finished 3rd, 5th and 10th.

The team’s new look line-up will feature Macau debutant Christian Lundgaard, who retains his 2019 F3 seat, alongside Sebastián Fernández and Ferdinand Habsburg.

Discussing the event, Philippe said: “We are happy to go back to Macau as ART, because we haven't been there for a long time now. It is a special place, we know that. I want to see how it will go with this car - it will be quick, but let’s wait and see.

“It is a street circuit, but it’s a very quick street circuit: it’s very long, and very easy to make mistakes. We all know that Macau is a bit of a gamble sometimes. You don't have a lot of running time on the track and you need to be on the track at the good moments to make a good lap, with good tyres. This makes Macau special.”

ART endured a hit-and-miss 2019 season, finishing the Team’s Championship in third place, despite entering the season as favourites alongside eventual winners PREMA Racing.

However, Philippe and his team head to Macau on the back of a positive three-day test stint in Valencia, where Lundgaard topped the times for two of the three days. The Danish racer’s experience from the 2019 F3 campaign and his knowledge of the ART machine should aid him in Macau, with Philippe praising his form at Valencia in October.

“We were very, very happy,” Philippe said of Lundgaard’s tests. “We knew that Christian would be quick because he has had a year in F3, which many of them in Valencia did not have.

“It is always difficult to compare with others, what they are doing and what we are doing in testing. We just wanted to test different things on our side, to have a different view, and we were able to do this, so it is fine.”

Despite the positivity gained from Lundgaard’s tests and the work that they were able to do, the team’s preparations were hampered by rain, which heavily affected both Day 2 and 3 in Spain.

Philippe finished: “The only shame is we came to the south of Spain to do some distance work, but on the three days we had not good weather, which is a bit of a shame, as we were hoping to test some different things. At the end of the day though, it was the same for everyone.”