Is British F3 champion Martin Cao the Chinese star Formula One needs?
History-making driver hopes his success and brand image can ease the road to the big league
Martin Cao Hongwei doesn't need to be told about the impact a Chinese driver could have on Formula One - the marketing and management student could write a thesis on it.
Cao, who won the British Formula Three championship this year and is competing at the Macau Grand Prix this weekend, would rather be the subject of that thesis himself.
It was a difficult time because there weren't many Chinese supporters of motor sport in China, but it's getting better with more people involved and more sponsors
The 21-year-old, from Changsha in Hunan province, began racing karts aged six, but his career kicked on when he went to England to study and hooked up with the Fortec team, for whom he's racing at Macau.
"I just loved driving basically and wanted to drive and drive fast," says Cao of his early days on China's fledgling karting circuit.
His parents didn't really understand his passion for a sport that has not grabbed the national consciousness, but have backed him throughout.
"It was a difficult time because there weren't many Chinese supporters of motor sport in China, but it's getting better with more people involved and more sponsors," adds Cao, whose perfect English has a twinge of West Midlands accent from his time at Keele University.