2015 F1 Powerboat World Championship season

The 2015 UIM F1 H2O World Championship is the 32nd season of Formula 1 Powerboat racing. A provisional calendar of eight races, beginning in Doha, Qatar on 14 March 2015, and ending in Sharjah, UAE on 18 December 2015 was published by the UIM.^[1]

Philippe Chiappe, driving for the CTIC China Team, entered the season as defending world champion having won his first title, and the first for a Frenchman, the previous year.^[2]

Teams and drivers

Team	Hull	Engine	No.	Race drivers	Rounds
CTIC China Team	Moore	Mercury 2.5l	1	Philippe Chiappe[3]	1
	DAC		2	Xiong Ziwei[3]	1
Qatar Team	DAC	Mercury 2.5l	3	TBA
			4	Shaun Torrente[4]	1
Team Abu Dhabi	BaBa	Mercury 2.5l	5	David Del Pin[5]	1
				Thani Al Qamzi	2
	DAC		6	Alex Carella[6]	1
F1 GC Atlantic Team	DAC	Mercury 2.5l	9	Youssef Al Rubayan	1
	BaBa		10	Duarte Benavente	1
Mad Croc BaBa Racing Team	BaBa	Mercury 2.5l	11	Sami Seliö	1
			12	Filip Roms	1
Team Sweden	Molgaard	Mercury 2.5l	14	Jonas Andersson	1
			15	Jesper Forss	1
Motorglass F1 Team	BaBa	Mercury 2.5l	23	Bernd Enzenhofer	1
	Blaze		24	Francesco Cantando	1
Emirates Team	BaBa	Mercury 2.5l	27	Ahmed Al Hameli[4]	1
			28	Erik Stark[7]	2
Team Nautica	BaBa	Mercury 2.5l	50	Marit Strømøy	1
	Molgaard		51	Erik Stark	1
				TBA	2

Team and driver changes

The biggest change during the off-season was Alex Carella's move from the Qatar Team to arch-rivals Team Abu Dhabi.^[6][8] Carella had been tempted to switch teams following the announcement that Guido Cappellini would replace Scott Gillman as Team Abu Dhabi's technical director.^[9] Qatar did not immediately name a replacement for Carella, leaving them to compete with just one boat at the first race of the year with Shaun Torrente.^[4]

Carella was initially partnered with Thani Al Qamzi at Team Abu Dhabi, but on 13 March, the day before the season-opening Qatar GP, Al Qamzi and new team principal Cappellini had a bitter argument over which boat the driver should use. The outcome resulted in Al Qamzi being sacked from the team, and at the eleventh hour was replaced by Italian rookie David Del Pin.^[5][10]

Having been replaced by Carella, Ahmed Al Hameli was left on the sidelines but joined up with ousted principal Gillman as the two set about putting together a new team which Gillman described as aiming to "nurture Emirati talent".^[4] The Emirates Team was a throwback to Gillman's original venture which shared the same name before it became Team Abu Dhabi. For the first race of the year, with no F1 hull readily available at such short notice, Gillman and Al Hameli had to source an F2 boat – Ivan Brigada's BaBa from the previous year – replacing the smaller capacity F2 engine for an F1-standard one. By the second round of the year, the team had new BaBa hulls ready to race, and alongside Al Hameli, Erik Stark was signed from Team Nautica.^[7] Having had a sensational 2014, backed up with a fine third place in the first race of 2015, Stark was considered one of the brightest prospects in the sport.

Brigada's former employers Caudwell Racing did not return for 2015, having folded last year without completing the season. This left Brigada and Slovakia's Tomáš Čermák without drives and ensured that the field returned to being entirely powered by 2.5 litre Mercury engines.

Reigning champions CTIC China Team retained their line-up of Philippe Chiappe and Xiong Ziwei,^[3] and F1 GC Atlantic Team, Mad Croc BaBa Racing and Team Sweden, also all named unchanged line-ups from 2014. Francesco Cantando's Motorglass F1 Team saw a change as Bartek Marszalek exited the team, replaced with Austrian Bernd Enzenhofer.

Season calendar

A provisional calendar of eight races was released by the UIM on 24 January 2015, the largest since 2010 and featuring two races in Europe for the first time since the 2011 season when Portimao and Kiev appeared.^[1] For 2015, Portugal returns after a four year absence,^[11] whilst France appears on the calendar for the first time since 2007, an eight year gap.^[12] The French race featuring as a consequence of Chiappe's title success in 2014. Qatar returns to a single slot having filled in for the cancelled Ukraine round in 2014 with an additional race, whilst the traditional end-of-year double header in the UAE continues at Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. China has increased its presence on the calendar to two rounds, at regular venue Liuzhou and an additional race in Shanghai.^[13] The remaining calendar spot is expected to be filled by a round in Thailand,^[14] the first time the championship has visited the country since 1994.

Round	Race Title	Circuit Location	Date
1	12th Grand Prix of Qatar	Doha	14 March
2	19th Grand Prix of France	Évian-les-Bains	28 June
3	14th Grand Prix of Portugal	Porto	2 August
4	19th Grand Prix of China	Liuzhou	2 October
5	20th Grand Prix of China	Shanghai	11 October
6	4th Grand Prix of Thailand	TBA	8 November
7	23rd Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi	Abu Dhabi	11 December
8	16th Grand Prix of Sharjah	Sharjah	18 December

Results and standings

Points will be awarded to the top 10 classified finishers. A maximum of two boats per team are eligible for points in the teams' championship.

Drivers standings

Pos	Driver	QAT	FRA	POR	CHN	CHN	THA	ABU	SHA	Points
1	Shaun Torrente	1								20
2	Philippe Chiappe	2								15
3	Erik Stark	3								12
4	Jonas Andersson	4								9
5	Alex Carella	5								7
6	Marit Strømøy	6								5
7	Youssef Al Rubayan	7								4
8	Filip Roms	8								3
9	David Del Pin	9								2
10	Duarte Benavente	10								1
11	Xiong Ziwei	11								0
	Jesper Forss	Ret								0
	Ahmed Al Hameli	Ret								0
	Sami Seliö	Ret								0
	Francesco Cantando	Ret								0
	Bernd Enzenhofer	DNS

Teams standings

Pos	Team	Boat No.	QAT	FRA	POR	CHN	CHN	THA	ABU	SHA	Points
1	Qatar Team	3									20
		4	1
2	Team Nautica	50	6								17
		51	3
3	CTIC China Team	1	2								15
		2	11
4	Team Sweden	14	4								9
		15	Ret
5	Team Abu Dhabi	5	9								9
		6	5
6	F1 GC Atlantic Team	9	7								5
		10	10
7	Mad Croc BaBa Racing Team	11	Ret								3
		12	8
	Motorglass F1 Team	23	DNS								0
		24	Ret
	Emirates Team	27	Ret								0

References

External links

• Official website
• The official website of the Union Internationale Motonautique