2014 Formula Masters China Explained

The 2014 Formula Masters China season was the fourth season of the Formula Pilota China series, and the second under the Formula Masters China branding. The championship commenced on 10 May at Zhuhai in China and finished on 21 October at Shanghai in China after eighteen races held at six meetings.

Driving for Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG, James Munro of New Zealand finished the season as the drivers' champion, finishing 28 points clear of his closest rival, Hong Kong's Matthew Solomon, driving for Eurasia Motorsport. Munro started the season strongly, taking six successive wins at the first Zhuhai meeting and the first Shanghai meeting, as well as the opening race at Inje Speedium. Solomon hit back with a streak of his own, with four wins at Inje and Sepang; Munro finished behind him in three of the races, and ultimately went on to win eight races to Solomon's five at the end of the season. Dan Wells of Great Britain – and team-mate to Munro – finished third in the championship, ten points in arrears of Solomon, taking a total of twelve podiums during the season, but it took him until the final four races to take his two wins for the seasons; these wins came at the second Zhuhai and Shanghai meetings.

The only other driver to take a victory during the season was Meritus.GP driver Jake Parsons, who took three victories en route to fourth place in the championship despite only competing in the second half of the season. He took seven podium finishes in his ten starts in the 2014 season. In the teams' championship, Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG were comfortable winners of the title, due to the results of Munro, Wells and Matthew Swanepoel.

Teams and drivers

Team		Drive	Rounds
Zen-Motorsport	6	Bao Jin Long^[1]	1–4, 6
	7	Ronald Wu	All
	11	Hua Miao	1–3
	29	Yin Hai Tao	All
Humpuss Junior Racing Team	8	Darma Mangkuluhur Hutomo	All
Humpuss Junior Racing Team	36	Yasuo Senna Iriawan	All
Super License Team	9	Philip Hamprecht	4, 6
	15	Yuya Motojima	1, 6
	39	Tomoki Takahashi	5
	55	Takashi Hata^[2]	4–5
	75	Zou Chen Yu^[3]	2
Meco Motorsports	10	Akhil Rabindra	1–3
Eurasia Motorsport	11	Hua Miao	4–6
	12	Aidan Read	6
	17	Pu Jun Jin^[4]	All
	18	Yuan Bo	All
	19	Matthew Solomon^[5]	All
	20	Sean Hudspeth	1–2, 5
	24	Dominic Tjia	4
Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG	16	Dan Wells^[6]	All
	30	Ryuji Kumita	6
	40	James Munro^[7]	All
	49	Matthew Swanepoel^[8]	1–3
Meritus.GP	21	Mandla Mdakane^[9]	3–4
	68	Mandla Mdakane^[9]	1–2
	27	Jake Parsons	4–6
	33	Daniel Woodroof	4–5
	38	Aston Hare	1–2
	88	Andersen Martono^[10]	All

Race calendar and results

A provisional race calendar was released on 25 October 2013.^[11] An updated race calendar was released on 29 January 2014, which dropped the round at Penbay and rescheduled the Sepang round to August as a support round to GT Asia.^[12]

Round		Circuit	Date	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	R1	Zhuhai International Circuit	10 May	Matthew Swanepoel	James Munro	James Munro	nowrap	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG
	R2		10 May		James Munro	James Munro	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG
	R3		11 May	Race postponed^[13]
2	R1	Shanghai International Circuit	24 May	James Munro	James Munro	James Munro	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG
	R2		24 May	Aston Hare	James Munro	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG
	R3	25 May	James Munro	Matthew Solomon	James Munro	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG
3	R1	Inje Speedium	19 July	Matthew Solomon	James Munro	James Munro	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG
	R2		19 July		James Munro	Matthew Solomon	Eurasia Motorsport
	R3		20 July	James Munro	Dan Wells	Matthew Solomon	Eurasia Motorsport
			20 July	Race postponed
4	R1	Sepang International Circuit	16 August	Jake Parsons	Matthew Solomon	Matthew Solomon	Eurasia Motorsport
	R2		16 August		nowrap	Matthew Solomon	nowrap	Matthew Solomon	Eurasia Motorsport
	R3		17 August	nowrap	Matthew Solomon	Jake Parsons	Jake Parsons	Meritus.GP
5	R1	Zhuhai International Circuit	nowrap	19 September	Jake Parsons	Yin Hai Tao	James Munro	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG
	R2		20 September		Matthew Solomon	Jake Parsons	Meritus.GP
	R3		20 September	Yuan Bo	Matthew Solomon	Matthew Solomon	Eurasia Motorsport
	^[14]		21 September	James Munro^[15]	Yuan Bo	Dan Wells	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG
6	R1	Shanghai International Circuit	18 October	James Munro	James Munro	James Munro	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG
	R2		18 October		Jake Parsons	Jake Parsons	Meritus.GP
	R3		19 October	Jake Parsons	Matthew Solomon	Dan Wells	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG

Notes

Championship standings

Drivers' championship

Points for both championships were awarded as follows:

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	PP
Races 1 & 3	20	15	12	10	8	6	4	3	2	1	1
Race 2	12	10	8	6	4	3	2	1	0	0	1

	Driver	ZHU			SHI			INJ				SEP			ZHU				SHI
1	James Munro	1	1	C	1	1	1	1	2	Ret	C	2	2	4	1	Ret	13	7	1	5	4	215
2	Matthew Solomon	7	3	C	3	3	2	3	1	1	C	1	1	2	Ret	Ret	1	3	14	4	5	187
3	Dan Wells	3	5	C	2	2	4	2	3	8	C	3	Ret	3	Ret	5	3	1	3	3	1	177
4	Jake Parsons											4	3	1	11	1	2	6	2	1	2	116
5	Ronald Wu	6	Ret	C	Ret	14	13	7	4	5	C	10	10	9	2	3	5	11	8	7	7	67
6	Andersen Martono	11	Ret	C	16	8	8	9	6	2	C	Ret	Ret	10	4	7	7	4	5	Ret	8	62
7	align=left nowrap	Darma Mangkuluhur Hutomo	4	DNS	C	14	13	7	5	5	3	C	5	4	11	Ret	Ret	Ret	8	7	6	11	62
8	Yuan Bo	5	4	C	11	12	12	Ret	7	4	C	6	9	13	12	8	8	2	10	13	Ret	53
9	Yin Hai Tao	Ret	9	C	5	5	14	11	Ret	6	C	Ret	Ret	7	3	2	12	10	6	Ret	14†	52
10	Yasuo Senna Iriawan	10	6	C	7	7	9	6	8	7	C	Ret	5	Ret	7	6	14	5	9	Ret	9	46
11	Philip Hamprecht											9	6	5					4	2	6	39
12	Yuya Motojima	2	2	C															Ret	9	3	37
13	Aston Hare	Ret	7	C	4	4	3															30
14	Pu Jun Jin	NC	Ret	C	6	10	5	8	13†	NC	C	Ret	Ret	8	9	9	6	12	11	8	12	29
15	Sean Hudspeth	Ret	DNS	C	8	11	11								5	11	4	9				23
16	Tomoki Takahashi														6	4	9	13				14
17	Akhil Rabindra	8	8	C	15	16	16	4	Ret	Ret	C											14
18	Bao Jin Long	9	Ret	C	9	15	17	13†	10	9	C	Ret	8	6					Ret	12	10	14
19	Matthew Swanepoel	12	Ret	C	10	6	6	Ret	9	Ret	C											12
20	Mandla Mdakane	Ret	10	C	NC	9	10	10	11	10	C	7	7	14								9
21	Hua Miao	Ret	Ret	C	13	17	15	12	12	11	C	11	11	15	8	13	10	14	13	11	13	4
22	Daniel Woodroof											8	Ret	Ret	Ret	10	11	16				3
23	Takashi Hata											Ret	13	12	10	12	15	15				1
24	Aidan Read																		12	10	Ret	0
25	Dominic Tjia											12	12	16								0
	Ryuji Kumita																		Ret	DNS	DNS	0
align=center colspan=23	Guest drivers ineligible for points
	Zou Chen Yu				12	Ret	18															0
	Driver	ZHU			SHI			INJ				SEP			ZHU				SHI

Bold – Pole
Italics – Fastest Lap

† – Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 75% of the race distance.

Teams' championship

	Team
1	Cebu Pacific Air by KCMG	384
2	Eurasia Motorsport	274
3	Meritus.GP	215
4	Zen–Motorsport	124
5	Humpuss Junior Racing Team	108
6	Super License Team	91
7	Meco Motorsports	14

Notes and References

News: Aston Hare and Ronald Wu lead several new additions to 2014 FMCS grid. Banerjee. Aditya. Paddock Scout. 30 April 2014. 30 April 2014.
News: Jake Parsons and Matt Solomon share FMCS poles at Sepang. Khorounzhiy. Valentin. Paddock Scout. 15 August 2014. 15 August 2014.
News: Munro leads the way at free practice in Shanghai. Banerjee. Aditya. Paddock Scout. 23 May 2014. 23 May 2014.
News: Eurasia sign Bo Yuan and Kevin Jun Jin Pu for 2014 FMCS campaign. Banerjee. Aditya. Paddock Scout. 11 March 2014. 12 March 2014.
News: Solomon returns for sophomore Formula Masters China campaign. Goddard. Stephen. Paddock Scout. 13 February 2014. 26 February 2014.
News: Dan Wells lands FMCS return with KCMG. Banerjee. Aditya. Paddock Scout. 28 April 2014. 29 April 2014.
News: James Munro secures KCMG drive for 2014 FMCS campaign. Banerjee. Aditya. Paddock Scout. 1 April 2014. 1 April 2014.
News: Matthew Swanepoel lands KCMG drive for 2014 FMCS season. Banerjee. Aditya. Paddock Scout. 20 March 2014. 20 March 2014.
News: Mandla Mdakane secures Meritus drive for 2014 FMCS season. Banerjee. Aditya. Paddock Scout. 7 April 2014. 7 April 2014.
News: Meritus sign Andersen Martono for full 2014 FMCS campaign. Banerjee. Aditya. Paddock Scout. 3 April 2014. 3 April 2014.
News: Formula Masters China Series Announces 2014 Season. 25 October 2013. lmd.lk. LMD. 25 October 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131113033937/http://lmd.lk/2013/10/25/formula-masters-china-series/. 13 November 2013. dead. dmy-all.
News: Formula Masters China Series Announces 2014 Season . 29 January 2014 . FormulaMastersChina.com . 29 January 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130624010312/http://www.formulamasterschina.com/en/News/index.html . 24 June 2013 .
Web site: @danwellsracing: 11 May. Twitter. Twitter Inc.. 11 May 2014. 11 May 2014.
News: 2014 Pan Delta Super Racing Festival (Autumn Race) Official Timetable. 29 September 2014. Zhuhai International Circuit. ZIC Group.
At the May Zhuhai meeting, Matthew Swanepoel qualified on pole position. As Swanepoel was not entered for the rescheduled race, all drivers that originally qualified behind him, moved up the order.