It’s time for the FIA GT World Cup

It’s finally that week in the year where we all look at the roads between the unforgiving barriers of the Guia Circuit in Macau, as the FIA GT World Cup will put 16 drivers from six manufacturers to test in order to see who comes out as the top sportscar driver in a street circuit where margin for error is a suggestion and where track position matters more than in other street circuits of the World.
 
Considering that the numbers aren’t evenly distributed, some manufacturers chose to put way more effort than others, bringing as much trump cars in their hands as they can, even though the grid looks a little bit emptier than in previous years.
 

Porsche is the manufacturer with most racers in the grid, as five examples of the Porsche 911 GT3R Spec 992 will be in action to achieve a crown that doesn’t go to the Stuttgart manufacturer since the first edition of the Macau GT Cup, as Darryl O’Young conquered the streets with a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Spec 997, when the GT3 class was still in the first steps and the GT Cup wasn’t an FIA homologated race.
 
Phantom Global Racing and Absolute Racing represent Asia for Porsche, while Schumacher CLRT comes from Europe. Laurens Vanthoor comes with his famous race win in 2016, where he beat fierce Porsche opposition while still being an Audi driver, but with Alessio Picariello, Dorian Boccolacci and Laurin Heinrich having lots of experience in Asia, this will be a tough competition just within the manufacturer. Add to it the current DTM champion Ayhançan Güven and Porsche has a bunch of sprint racing beasts to have a shot at the win.
 

With three cars, Ferrari has three different squads fielding a Ferrari 296 GT3 each, with almost no change in the teams as AF Corse and Harmony Racing gain the company of Winhere Motorsports. Antonio Fuoco and Yifei Ye were brought from AF Corse’s FIA WEC operation, which got the title with the factory team while the privateer effort got the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and while Deng Yi might not have the star power of the other two drivers, he has a race win in the Thailand Super Series round at Bangsaen, which demonstrates some street racing prowess from him.
 

Audi has three cars too, but the examples of the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II are more dependant from Audi Sport Asia than a push directly from Ingolstadt. Compared to 2024, the effort was reduced by a car as UNO Racing Team will have only one machine for Adderly Fong, while FAW Team Phantom ramps up the effort with two cars  for the newcomer Joel Eriksson and the certain bet that is Christopher Haase. While being far from having no history at Macau like Ferrari, Audi is about to complete a decade without a win at the Guia Circuit, so they need to push to break this bad streak on their side.
 

For Lamborghini, things are even worse as their last GT win at Macau dates back to 2010, when REITER Engineering was still in charge of building Lamborghini’s GT3 cars. Absolute Corse aligns two examples of the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 as it will bow out from top tier competition, with Luca Engstler in fine form despite losing the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup title, while Edoardo Mortara needs no presentation, as his four GT wins at Macau speak for him.
 

BMW opted to cut by half its involvement at Macau compared to last year, with two BMW M4 GT3 Evos being fielded only by the top teams within the structure of the Bavarian manufacturer, as WRT will be with Sheldon van der Linde while ROWE Racing will take care of two time Macau GT winner Raffaele Marciello, who has the opportunity to match Maro Engel’s three wins and stay only one win behind Edoardo Mortara.
 

Finally, McLaren reaffirms commitment with the FIA GT World Cup but keeps the effort limited to a single McLaren 720S GT3 Evo fielded by Optimum Motorsport, with the driver being also the same as Benjamin Goethe returns after being in impressive form in GT World Challenge Europe, be it on the Sprint Cup or the Endurance Cup, with two sprint wins in his name with Garage 59 this season.
 
While absences usually aren’t exactly a topic, it’s worth noticing that Mercedes won’t be present at Macau to defend their title, and consequently, Maro Engel won’t try to match Mortara’s numbers as the winningest GT racers of the Guia Circuit. This will also mean that their six year streak will be broken next weekend, and although BMW was there to take it when Mercedes couldn’t, neither Augusto Farfus nor Schnitzer Motorsport will be there to attempt it.
 
Qualifying changes to a 30 minute session with all drivers, with the top 10 going to a Superpole session where the cars will go to the track one by one, with two laps available to set a time. The Qualifying Race on 15 November has the usual 12 laps, while the Main Race on 16 November will be held with 16 laps.
 
PHOTOS: Macau Grand Prix, Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific, BMW M Motorsport, Winhere, UNO Racing Team, Absolute Racing, Optimum Motorsport