Hong Kong’s Matt Solomon has this morning, Tuesday, 17th November, been confirmed alongside Alexander Sims at Double R Racing for the weekend’s Suncity Group Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix – marking the 19-year-old’s maiden appearance in the F3 classic at the renowned Far East street circuit.
Solomon contested his first season of FIA Formula 3 European Championship action with British squad Double R this year and achieved a best finish of 13th position, notably on another of world motorsport’s high-profile street venues – Pau in France.
Prior to his arrival in Formula 3 this year, Solomon – who is fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, as well as English – claimed five race victories and a total of 12 podiums in Formula Masters China on his way to becoming 2014 category Vice-Champion. He also competed at the Guia street circuit in Macau in 2013 in the China-based series.
Double R team principal Anthony ‘Boyo’ Hieatt is looking forward to seeing how Solomon tackles the greatest challenge in global F3 racing, and says the experience and wealth of knowledge team-mate Alexander Sims will bring to the squad can only pay dividends for Solomon.
“It’s great to continue our relationship with Matt into Macau, he’s made some good progress this year with his driving in one of the world’s toughest championships at any level”, said Hieatt, “He’s going to benefit so much from working with a driver as talented and quick as Alexander so we’re looking forward to seeing how he gets on.
“Obviously, Matt did a fantastic job at Pau during the European season and he’s already got experience of Macau from Formula Masters – so he knows what to expect from an unforgiving street circuit. Macau will be the biggest challenge he’s faced so far in F3, but hopefully it will all go well.”
Solomon’s racing career began in karting aged 11 and in his first year of competition he won the Hong Kong Junior Championship. Holding onto the title the following season, he enjoyed further success and went on to win the 2012 Grand Champion Hong Kong International Kart Grand Prix.
Graduating into cars the following year, Solomon participated in the maiden season of Formula Masters China and ended the campaign in the series top five with four rostrum results. He also dipped a toe in the water into European action with an outing in Formula Renault 2.0 Alps.
In addition to his single-seater exploits, Solomon is also a race winner in GT racing – in 2013 he partnered double FIA Formula One World Champion Mika Hakkinen in the GT Asia Series and the pairing claimed victory in their maiden outing.
Practice and qualifying sessions at Macau take place this Thursday, 19th November, and Friday, 20th November, with the Qualification Race scheduled to take place at 13.45 (local time) on Saturday, 21st November. The Macau F3 GP will follow at 15.30 (local time) on Sunday, 22nd November.
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