Ma was born on 25 December 1987 in Shanghai. 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.[2]
Ma was added to the HRT F1 driver development programme on 5 April 2012,[3] 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".[4][5] Ma also became the first driver of Chinese nationality to take part in a Grand Prix weekend when he replaced Narain Karthikeyan in the first Friday practice session of the Italian Grand Prix.[6] He was given three more chances to drive the car in Friday sessions later that year.[citation needed]
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, continuing the role of Friday test driver whilst racing for their GP2 Series team for the season.[7] In 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, he replaced Charles Pic 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 and out of the 107% reference time to the quickest driver in Free Practice 1. Soon after the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix, Caterham team claimed that he would be replaced by Alexander Rossi for the rest of the 2013 season. In the 2013 Bahrain GP2 Series round, Alexander Rossi made his debut GP2 Series race and took a podium finish.[citation needed]
GP2
He made his debut GP2 Series race in 2013 Sepang GP2 Series round.[8] 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.[9]
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.[10] He won the second round of the Race of Russia, becoming the first Chinese driver to win an FIA World Championship race,[11] 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. 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 but was replaced by former Haas F1 driver Esteban Gutiérrez following a disappointing series of performances in the first three races of the season.[12]
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.[15] On 21 November 2020, at the Guia Race of Macau, Ma finished second in the qualifying race of the 2020 TCR China Touring Car Championship season finale, securing the drivers’ title.[16]
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.[17]
