Macau’s contribution to the careers of motor sport’s biggest names is part of the legend of the Guia circuit.

Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher perhaps remain the most famous alumni. Senna dominated the Macau GP in 1983 with pole and two wins on debut and Schumacher won in 1990 in his second appearance at the circuit having won the qualifier on debut.

Their talent would have taken them to the top in any case, but it’s accepted their victories at a time when the best F1 teams watched Macau for future stars accelerated their progress, while the future driver selection process has become far more sophisticated over time and Macau has become more of a finishing school, and it’s no surprise that graduates populate most FIA World Championships.

Nico Rosberg, class of 2003, is reigning FIA Formula One World Champion, Sebastian Vettel came third at Macau in 2005 and has four F1 titles to his name and triple champion Lewis Hamilton raced at Macau in 2004.

Every winner of the FIA Formula E Championship has raced at Macau, and Nelson Piquet Jnr, Macau 2003, was the inaugural Formula E champion in 2014. Sebastian Buemi and Lucas di Grassi, Macau 2004 and 2006, took the Season 2 and Season 3 titles respectively.

Brendon Hartley came from New Zealand to place third at Macau in 2008 and in 2015 won the FIA World Endurance Championship for Porsche, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

David Brabham from Australia took victory Macau in 1989 and won at Le Mans in 2009.

Andy Priaulx raced at Macau in 2000 and won the FIA World Touring Car Championship three years in a row from 2005 to 2007.

James Courtney claimed a lap record at Macau in 2002, survived a life threatening F1 testing crash in the same year and won the Australian Touring Car Championship in 2010.

For talent scouts it’s only necessary to scan the entry lists of past Macau Grands Prix to see how influential it is in rounding out the careers of future stars.

Macau 2000 netted Priaulx, Tiago Monteiro and Takuma Sato.

Three years later Nico Rosberg, Nelson Piquet Jnr, race winner Nicolas Lapierre (also France’s first Al Champion) and Robert Kubica all competed.

Fast forward to 2006 and Paul di Resta, Kamui Kobayashi and Maro Engel were in the field and three years later Valtieri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo squared off.

In 2014 Max Verstappen raced, crashed and came seventh in his last F3 race before leapfrogging to Formula One.

When the entry list for this year’s Macau GP is announced on October 24, there’s every possibility it, too, will point to the stars of the future. With the wealth of young talent progressing through the ranks it’s likely the wait will not be too long.