Photo: Chinese F4
China’s motorsport governing body, the Federation of Automobile and Motorcyle Sports of People of China, has announced that all motorsport in the country is suspended until further notice.
On May 27, a release was put out by the federation stating “all automobile and motorcycle racing events are suspended during the course of the [action]” to improve safety measures at events.
Several circuits also put out statements announcing the cancellation and postponement of upcoming race meetings, including next month’s first weekend of single-seater racing at Zhuhai.
On June 19/20, Formula Regional Asia (previously known as Asian Formula Renault), Chinese Formula 4 and Circuit Hero Formula Race (CHFR) were all supposed to hold their season openers at the circuit but that event has now been postponed.
Formula Scout understands that FRegional Asia, which planned to use the halo-shod Tatuus T-318 chassis that raced in Asian Formula 3 during the winter and equip them with Renault engines, will not actually be taking place at all this year.
A major lack of communication from series organiser Formula Racing Development meant teams knew little of the series’ 2021 plans, and that – combined with little interest from the teams with FR2.0 cars to buy F3 machinery and customs restrictions due to the pandemic – has put pay to the series’ plans for a second year in a row.
A round had already been missed as the planned Ningbo season opener on May 22/23 didn’t take place.
While there are Regional F3 cars based in Asia, Formula Scout has been informed that some of those Alfa Romeo-powered chassis could be taken to India for a prospective Formula Regional India championship being planned by GT racer Aditya Patel, who organised the X1 Racing League that took place in 2019.
CHFR meanwhile is a new series launched as part of the Zhuhai-based Circuit Hero Race meetings. It was supposed to hold its season opener earlier this year but cancelled it due to a lack of entries, and cater for cars including the FR2.0 chassis previously campaigned in Asian FR2.0. It was possible that Chinese F4 and CHFR were going to share grids in June.
The new Zhuzhou International Circuit was penned to hold the next FRegional round on July 17/18, but won’t be taking place, meaning the first time single-seater racing taking place in China this year is likely to be CHFR’s Zhuhai round on September 18/19. The Chinese F4 season opener on the Wuhan street circuit takes place in the two days after that.
Chinese F4 recently announced it will use a four-race format for its rounds at Wuhan and Ningbo, which takes place on November 5-7, and the season finale that will run on the Macau Grand Prix bill will count for double points as it did in 2020.