The 22-year old, who hasn’t yet raced the new-for-2019 Formula 3 car he will be piloting at Macau, has signed a partnership deal with the Austrian premium exhaust manufacturer for the most exciting F3 race on the calendar and aims to take the challenge to the fierce competition.
“It’s an honour to carry such a premium Austrian brand as REMUS on my Macau GP car, race suit and helmet,” commented Habsburg. “It’s a brand that has been associated with the top motorsport teams, drivers, riders and championships and I grew up wanting to be a part of that heritage.”
In fact, REMUS is a major partner of DTM, the series in which Habsburg has raced this season with R-Motorsport in the Aston Martin Vantage DTM car. With an impressive rookie season under his belt, he’s looking forward to a strong career in the series but couldn’t resist returning to the F3 race he came so close to winning in 2017.
“When you nearly win something, you can’t ever truly walk away from it,” he explained. “If I don’t try and win Macau, it’ll always be the one that got away and I don’t want to live with regrets. After a year out of single-seaters, I’ve got a little catching-up to do, especially as the new F3 car is quite different to the one I raced last season, but I’ve been preparing as well as I can.”
The 2019 FIA Formula 3 car has been designed to be more closely aligned with the FIA GP3 car and, despite being heavier than its predecessor, the Macau regulations mean increased downforce will give the drivers more grip through the fast corners. DRS has also been introduced this year but it’s unclear if this will improve chances of overtaking or not.
“I drove the new car at the official test at Valencia and, although the rain was Biblical for much of it, it was good to get some running,” he continued. “It was also good to spend some proper time with ART GP – I think we’re going to have a good week together. Maximising the peak performance of the Pirelli tyre will be key to success, I think. Qualifying at Macau has always been vital to success and now it’s set to get a little more challenging.”
In order to prepare for the event, Habsburg has utilised the state-of-the-art simulators at AVL Engineering, another of his Austrian partners, and ART GP. Here, he was able to use data analysis and expert coaching to get up-to-speed with the new car ahead of this weekend’s race.
The 66th Macau Grand Prix FIA F3 World Cup race takes place on 17th November 2019.