FFF Racing enter McLaren 650S GT3s at Macau GT Cup
The season-ending Macau GT Cup will take on additional significance in 2015, with the running of the inaugural FIA GT World Cup, an event to which the world’s leading GT manufacturers have been invited to attend, and one of the favourites – McLaren GT – have revealed that the experienced Asian operation FFF Racing Team by ACM will campaign three 650S GT3s at the Guia Circuit.
The three-car FFF team have been regulars at the front of the field in the hotly contested GT Asia Series this year, claiming victory in just their third event at Okayama in Japan.
Enjoying support from the Chinese FFF Automobile, technical support from McLaren GT and the experience of renowned international driver – Italian Andrea Caldarelli – the team have really shaken things up in Asia, a situation which was not lost on the British manufacturer.
Just a week ago FFF Racing Team by ACM campaigned three cars in the penultimate round of the 2015 GT Asia Series season at Shanghai, with cars for former F1 driver Tonio Liuzzi, McLaren GT factory driver Alvaro Parente, Japanese GT Asia race winner Hiroshi Hamaguchi, and Australian GT front-runner Nathan Antunes amongst the drivers.
For Macau however there will be a different lineup in the three-car FFF team, with Parente joined by FFF part-timer Andre Couto and rising English star William Buller.
All three have enjoyed time on the iconic Guia Circuit, with local star Couto a legend in his home country, the Macanese driver having won the coveted Macau Grand Prix in 2000, defeating India’s Narain Karthikeyan and Japan’s Takuma Sato.
Couto is one of the most experienced GT drivers in Asia, and a regular still in the Japanese Super GT series, where he is the current GT300 points leader heading into the final two rounds of the season having won two of the first five events.
Parente too has competed in the Macau Grand Prix, in both 2003 and 2004 before going on to claim the 2005 British Formula 3 crown. Over recent years the Portugese driver has been a big part of the McLaren GT operation, and heavily involved in the development of both the MP4-12C and 650S GT3 cars, whilst the final member of the team, 23-year old William Buller made his Macau debut in 2009 as a 17 year old, dominating the Formula BMW Pacific event from start to finish. He also competed more recently in the 2010 and 2011 Macau Grands Prix.
For 2015 the young Irishman competed in the competitive Japanese Super Formula open-wheel category as a rival to Caldarelli.
About the Author
Subhash Nair Written work on dsf.my. @subhashtag on instagram. Autophiles Malaysia on Youtube.
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