Ma Qinghua

Ma Qinghua is a Chinese racing driver currently competing in the TCR World Tour with Lynk & Co Cyan Racing.
Ma became the first Chinese driver to win an FIA World Championship race when he won race two of the FIA WTCC Race of Russia">Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile">FIA WTCC Race of Russia. He has also previously competed in the World Touring Car Championship, GP2, a few practice sessions in Formula 1, and Formula E.

WWW Official Site 𝕏 maqinghuaF1 FB 293403110775967

Early life

Ma was born on 25 December 1987 in Shanghai. His father, Ma Qiangyun, was the owner of a car repair shop. Ma began karting at the age of eight and his family decided to focus all financial investments towards Ma's testing on more advanced racing tracks. Eventually, in order to make Ma's progress easier, the family invested in a karting track located in Quyang. Ma won the national karting junior championship at the age of twelve.

Career

Ma started his professional racing career in the Renault seasons|2005 Asian Formula Renault challenge] with Asia Racing Team for 6 races coming 16th with the highest finish of fifth. He also competed in one race in the 2005 [Italian Formula 3000 Championship|2005 Italian Formula 3000 championship] for team Astromega and raced in the 2006 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship for the same team. He also raced in the inaugural 2005–06 [A1 Grand Prix season|A1 Grand Prix season] for Team China at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, China at the Shanghai International Circuit, coming 17th. For the next few years, he raced in European Formula 3 championships like the 2008 2008 [Spanish Formula Three season|Spanish Formula 3 Championship] and 2009 British Formula 3 championship. He then competed in the 2010 Superleague Formula in the 2010 Ordos Superleague Formula round for Team China and a year later won the China Touring Car Championship's 1600c class driver's title.

Formula One

2012

Ma was added to the HRT F1 driver development programme on 5 April 2012, and made history as the first China-born driver to drive a Formula One car at an FIA-sanctioned event, a milestone described as "heralding an important step for Chinese motorsport". Ma also became the first driver of Chinese nationality to take part in a Grand Prix weekend when he replaced Narain Karthikeyan in the first Friday practice session of the Italian Grand Prix. He was given three more chances to drive the car in Friday sessions later that year.

2013

Ma had a contract to become a full time HRT driver in 2013, meaning he would become the first ever Chinese Formula 1 driver, however after HRT collapsed at the end of the 2012 season, this would never be and Ma instead moved to Caterham, continuing the role of Friday test driver whilst racing for their GP2 Series team for the GP2 Series season|season]. In 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, he replaced Charles Pic to participate in FP1 and became the first Chinese driver to drive at his home Grand Prix session, but he was about 1.5 seconds off the pace to his teammate Giedo van der Garde and out of the 107% reference time to the quickest driver in Free Practice 1. Soon after the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, Caterham team claimed that he would be replaced by Alexander Rossi for the rest of the 2013 season. In the 2013 Bahrain GP2 Series round, Alexander Rossi made his debut GP2 Series race and took a podium finish.

GP2

He made his debut GP2 Series race in 2013 Sepang GP2 Series round. Later in the final stint, his lap time dropped to more than 2 minutes in every lap and finished only 21st in featured race, which is the last place in classified drivers. Later, he was diagnosed with gastroenteritis leading to extreme dehydration by the medical team on track at Sepang and would not start the sprint race.

World Touring Car Championship

Ma raced in the 2014 World Touring Car Championship for Citroën Total WTCC driving at selected rounds in the fourth car. He won the second round of the Race of Russia, becoming the first Chinese driver to win an FIA World Championship race, and scored the fastest lap at the first round of the Race of China, Shanghai, ultimately coming 13th in the championship. He was given a full time seat for 2015 and won the second round of the Race of Portugal and finish 4th in the drivers championship. Despite this, he was not retained for 2016.

Formula E

In 2016, Ma replaced Salvador Duran in the 2015-16 Formula E season for Team Aguri. He retired from his first ePrix but finished the last three races, albeit out of the points. In the next season, Ma was signed by TeCheetah but was replaced by former Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutiérrez following a disappointing series of performances in the first three races of the season.
Ma returned to Formula E in 2017 with the Nio Formula E Team for the Paris ePrix replacing Luca Filippi in a one off appearance and again in the New York ePrix replacing Oliver Turvey who was injured. He returned in 2019 to race for the Nio 333 FE Team alongside Turvey. He was replaced by Daniel Abt for the Berlin rounds as travel restrictions disallowed him from traveling outside China. He was not renewed for the 2020-21 Formula E World Championship by NIO 333.

TCR China

Ma competed in the 2020 TCR China series in a Geely Group Motorsport-built Lynk & Co 03 TCR. He has signed for Shell Teamwork Lynk & Co Motorsport and will partner Lu Wei in the six-event series. On 21 November 2020, at the Guia Race of Macau, Ma finished second in the qualifying race of the 2020 TCR China Touring Car Championship season finale, securing the drivers’ title.

FIA WTCR

On 22 February 2022, it was announced that Ma would join reigning world champions Lynk & Co Cyan Racing to race a Lynk & Co 03 TCR in the 2022 FIA World Touring Car Cup.

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Ma was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.
^‡ Team point score.

Complete Italian Formula 3000 Championship results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2005	Team Astromega	ADR	VLL	BRN	IMO	MUG	MAG	MNZ	MIS 11	27th	0

Complete A1 Grand Prix results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2005-06	China	GBR SPR QO	GBR FEA QO	GER SPR	GER FEA	POR SPR	POR FEA	AUS SPR	AUS FEA	MYS SPR	MYS FEA	UAE SPR	UAE FEA	RSA SPR	RSA FEA	IDN SPR	IDN FEA	MEX SPR QO	MEX FEA QO	USA SPR	USA FEA	CHN SPR 14	CHN FEA 16	22nd	6

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
2006	Team Astromega	OSC1 1	OSC1 2	SPA 1	SPA 2	NÜR 1 11	NÜR 2 EX	ZAN 1 17	ZAN 2 13	OSC2 1 16	OSC2 2 15	ASS 1	ASS 2	AND 1	AND 2	SAL 1	SAL 2	26th	33

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	DC	Points
2006	Team Astromega	ZOL 1	ZOL 2	IST 1	IST 2	MIS 1 21	MIS 2 22	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	DON 1	DON 2	LMS 1	LMS 2	CAT 1	CAT 2	NC†	0

† As Ma was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points

Complete Spanish Formula Three Championship results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	DC	Points
2008	Team West-Tec	JAR 1	JAR 2	SPA 1	SPA 2	ALB 1	ALB 2	VSC 1 15	VSC 2 12	VF1 12	MAG 1 15	MAG 2 8	VAL 1 22	VAL 2 14	JER 1 8	JER 2 7	CAT 1 Ret	CAT 2 14	18th	7

Complete British Formula Three Championship results

Year	Class	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2009	National	Team West-Tec	Dallara F307	Mugen-Honda	OUL 1	OUL 2	SIL1 1	SIL1 2	ROC 1	ROC 2	HOC 1	HOC 2	SNE 1	SNE 2	DON 1	DON 2	SPA 1	SPA 2	SIL2 1	SIL2 2	ALG 1	ALG 2	BRH 1 16	BRH 2 Ret	10th	10

Complete Formula One participations

Year

Entrant

Chassis

Engine

WDC

Cosworth CA2012 2.4 V8

ITA
TD

SIN
TD

JPN

KOR

IND

ABU
TD

USA
TD

Renault RS27-2013 2.4 V8

CHN
TD

Complete GP2 Series results

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2013	Caterham Racing	SEP FEA 21	SEP SPR DNS	BHR FEA	BHR SPR	CAT FEA	CAT SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	NÜR FEA	NÜR SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	MRN FEA	MRN SPR	YMC FEA	YMC SPR	35th	0