Ma Qinghua () (born 25 December 1987) is a Chinese racing driver currently competing in the

World Touring Car Cup The FIA World Touring Car Cup (abbreviated to WTCR, referring to the use of TCR regulations) was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It ...

with Cyan Performance Lynk & Co. Ma became the first Chinese driver to win an FIA World Championship race when he won race two of the 2014 FIA WTCC Race of Russia. He has also previously competed in the

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sing ...

, GP2, a few practice sessions in

Formula 1 Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

, and

Formula E Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is an open-wheel single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The racing series is the highest class of competition for electrically powered single-seater racing cars ...

Early life

Ma was born on 25 December 1987 in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. His father, Ma Qiangyun, was the owner of a car repair shop. Ma began karting at the age of 8 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 12.

Career

Ma started his professional racing career in the 2005 Asian Formula Renault challenge with

Asia Racing Team Asia Racing Team (also known as ART Motorsports) is a China, Chinese-Macau, Macanese motor racing team that was formed in 2003. Its main operational headquarters are located within the Zhuhai International Circuit complex in South China, Southe ...

for 6 races coming 16th with the highest finish of 5th. He also competed in one race in the 2005 Italian Formula 3000 championship for

team Astromega Team Astromega was a racing team from Belgium, headquartered in Heist-op-den-Berg and created in 1995 by Mikke Van Hool. The team has competed in A1 Grand Prix, Formula Renault 1.6 Belgium and International Formula 3000. History Team Astromeg ...

and raced in the 2006 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC championship for the same team. He also raced in the inaugural A1 Grand Prix season for Team China at the A1 Grand Prix of Nations, China at the

Shanghai International Circuit The Shanghai International Circuit (), also called the SAIC Shanghai International Circuit () for sponsorship purposes, is a motorsport race track, situated in the Jiading District, Shanghai, China. The circuit is best known as the venue for the ...

, coming 17th. For the next few years he raced in European Formula 3 championships like the 2008 Spanish Formula 3 Championship and 2009 British Formula 3 championship. He then competed in the 2010

Superleague Formula Superleague Formula was an Open wheel car, open wheel single seater Formula racing, motor racing formula, which started in 2008, at Donington Park in the United Kingdom. The league introduced team sponsorship by association football clubs. It u ...

in the 2010 Ordos Superleague Formula round for Team China and a year later won the

China Touring Car Championship The China Touring Car Championship (CTCC; ) is a touring car racing series based in China and sanctioned by Lisheng Sports. It was established in 2004 following the opening of Shanghai International Circuit The Shanghai International Circuit ...

's 1600c class driver's title.

Formula One

2012

Ma was added to the

HRT F1 HRT Formula 1 Team, formerly known as Campos Meta 1 and Hispania Racing, was a Spanish Formula One team founded by former driver Adrián Campos. It was sold to José Ramón Carabante before its debut in 2010, and then to investment group ...

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 Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (; born 14 January 1977) is an Indian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and . Early life and family background Karthikeyan was born on 14 January 1977 in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu to Sheela ...

in the first Friday practice session of the

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix () is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix motor racing, motor racing Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been held since 1921 ...

. 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 Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge (district), Tandridge district of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valle ...

, continuing the role of Friday test driver whilst racing for their GP2 Series team for the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. In

2013 Chinese Grand Prix The 2013 Chinese Grand Prix (formally known as the 2013 Formula 1 UBS Chinese Grand Prix) was a Formula One auto racing, motor race held on 14 April 2013 at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China. The race was the third round of th ...

, he replaced

Charles Pic Charles Maurice Marcel Pic (; born 15 February 1990) is a French former racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Born and raised in Montélimar, Montélimar, Drôme, Pic began kart racing, karting aged 13 wi ...

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 Giedo Gijsbertus Gerrit van der Garde (; born 25 April 1985) is a Dutch former racing driver and sports broadcasting, broadcaster, who competed in Formula One in , and the FIA World Endurance Championship between 2016 FIA World Endurance Champi ...

and out of the 107% reference time to the quickest driver in Free Practice 1. Soon after the

team claimed that he would be replaced by

Alexander Rossi Alexander Michael Rossi (born September 25, 1991) is an American racing driver, who competes in the IndyCar Series for Ed Carpenter Racing, Ed Carpenter. Rossi competed in Formula One at five Formula One Grands Prix, Grands Prix in . In America ...

for the rest of the 2013 season. In the 2013 Bahrain GP2 Series round,

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 Team Aguri, formerly Amlin Aguri and officially the Team Aguri Formula E Team, was an international motor racing team founded by former Formula One and 24 Hours of Le Mans driver Aguri Suzuki (Executive Chairman) and Mark Preston (businessman), Ma ...

. He retired from his first ePrix but finished the last 3 races, albeit out of the points. In the next season, Ma was signed by

TeCheetah DS Techeetah (, ) was a Sino- French motor racing team under ownership of SECA - China Media Capital that competed in the electric racing series, Formula E. Formula E Team Aguri principal Aguri Suzuki announced he would leave the team in A ...

but was replaced by former Haas F1 driver

Esteban Gutiérrez Esteban Manuel Gutiérrez Gutiérrez (; born 5 August 1991) is a Mexican former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from to . Previously, from 2013 to 2014, Gutiérrez drove for the Sauber Formula One team but lost hi ...

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 The Paris ePrix was an annual race of the open-wheel car, single-seater, Electric car, electrically powered Formula E championship, held in Paris, France. It was first raced in the 2015-16 Formula E season, 2015-16 season. Circuit Circuit des In ...

replacing Luca Filippi in a one off appearance and again in the New York ePrix replacing

Oliver Turvey Oliver Jonathan Turvey (born 1 April 1987) is a British people, British professional racing driver, who most recently competed in Formula E, and is currently signed to DS Penske as a reserve driver and a sporting advisor. He was a notable Karti ...

who was injured. He returned in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

to race for the Nio 333 FE Team alongside Turvey. He was replaced by

Daniel Abt Daniel Johannes Abt (born 3 December 1992) is a German former racing driver. He is most notable for competing and winning races in Formula E with the Audi Sport ABT team. Previously, Abt raced in German Formula Three, GP3, and GP2, as well as ...

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 The Macau Guia Race - Kumho TCR World Tour Event of Macau, previously Guia Race of Macau, WTCC Guia Race of Macau, WTCR Macau Guia Race and Macau Guia Race - TCR Asia Challenge, is an international touring car race, and currently a round of the ...

, Ma finished second in the qualifying race of the

2020 TCR China Touring Car Championship The 2020 TCR China season was the fourth season of the TCR's Chinese Touring Car Championship. Teams and drivers Calendar and results The revised calendar was announced on 21 July 2020. Another revised calendar for the following rounds was an ...

season finale, securing the drivers’ title.

FIA WTCR

On 22 February 2022, it was announced that Ma Qinghua has joined 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.
^* Season still in progress.