Next Sunday, the first Chinese F1 Grand Prix is held in Shanghai. Clifford Coonan on the Chinese divers who want to compete
Marchy Lee Ying-kin is your classic Hong Kong twenty-something - he likes joking around with the boys, the latest Puma sneakers, fiddling with his mobile phone and spiky punk hairdos. Where he differs from his peers is behind the wheel of a high-speed racing car - Marchy Lee is hotly tipped to become China's first Formula One driver.
The Shanghai motor racing circuit is now officially open, and China will host its first Grand Prix next Sunday. All the F1 racing teams, particularly those battling to find sponsorship, know that a genuine Chinese Grand Prix hope is worth his weight in gold.
Eddie Jordan has made several high-profile visits to China and said: "I would like to see Chinese faces in my team in the near future."
Mercedes McLaren F1, one of the top three teams on the F1 circuit along with Ferrari and BMW-Williams, signed Beijing native Frankie Cheng Congfu, the runaway champion of the national karting competition, for a driver development programme.
Frankie Cheng may be finishing near the back of the grid in Europe, but he is gaining valuable experience and Asian motor racing experts reckon that if he comes back to the Far East, his experience could make him a title challenger at Formula Renault or BMW championships.
Shi Tianshu, head of Chinese motor sport's governing body the FASC, says mainland China will have a Formula One driver "sooner or later". Peter Thompson is a Wexford man who runs one of Asia's most successful motor sport teams, Meritus Racing. Their slogan is "Creating Asian Racing Heroes" and he strongly believes that China will produce a Formula One champion like Brazil's Ayrton Senna some day.
"As Frank Williams once said: 'there has to be at least one Ayrton Senna living today in China'," says Thompson, an affable man who boasts a long involvement in the sport in Ireland, Britain and Europe as well as Asia.
Meritus and their sponsors have invested around €5 million in the sport in Asia during the past 10 years, with the focus in the last two years on two Chinese drivers: Marchy Lee and Tung Hopin.
Tung Hopin, 21, has already tested a BMW-Williams F1 car, in an attempt to raise the profile of the sport in Asia. He dominated the Formula BMW Asian Championship last season, taking 12 pole positions and winning 10 of the 14 races held in China, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia.
"I have been keeping an eye on him for a long time, and I will go on paying close attention to him," Eddie Jordan has said about Tung, while Dr Mario Theissen, head of BMW Motorsport, has marked him out as an Asian driver to watch.
Tung was born in Wenzhou, 300 miles south of Shanghai, and brought up in the Netherlands. An engaging, friendly character, he speaks five languages, making him a dream for the marketing men.
There is a big difference between a Formula BMW car, powered by a 140 horsepower motorcycle engine, and a Grand Prix car producing more than 900 bhp, but Thompson says Tung has the potential to go all the way. One problem for Tung is that China's motor sport governing body, the FASC, does not consider the youngster a Chinese driver, as he has Dutch citizenship.
After years of success in karting, Lee opted to step down from the 250-horsepower Formula Three cars he raced in France and Macau over the past five years to Formula BMW. But the 27-year old is clear about the reason: "I want to drive a Formula One car" - and underlined this ambition by winning the Drivers' Championship in Asia this month.
"I was the first Chinese guy to win a race in Europe. I'm one of the best Chinese drivers in the world. You could say 27 is old, but it's different in this sport. Michael Schumacher is still winning races at 35. I've got the talent and I can do a good job. I'm ready, I'm mature. " he says.
Thompson says both Lee and Tung have all the basic instincts necessary to make excellent drivers. "They need proper funding from sponsorship and professional management and coaching in order to enter the higher formulas and F1 is a dream," says Thompson. "Their ability alone is simply not enough as a complete package is required including race-craft, fitness, funding, media support and the motivation," he says.
One potential pitfall is that China's motor racing body is too focused on Formula One and does not have the driver development programmes to nurse new young driver talent.
Also, the FASC is putting little effort into developing championships and drivers. "Until a well-established karting series as well as all the various stepping stones to the higher formulae are created it is going to take a long time for China to produce their first 'home grown' F1 driver. Perhaps 20 to 30 years for China to create its first Ayrton Senna," says Thompson.