2017 F1 Powerboat World Championship

The 2017 UIM F1 H2O World Championship was the 34th season of Formula 1 Powerboat racing. An initial seven race calendar was released at the end of January, with the championship scheduled to begin in Portimão, Portugal on 23 April and conclude in Sharjah, UAE on 15 December.[1]

2017 F1 Powerboat World Championship
Previous:	2016	Next:	2018

Philippe Chiappe, driving for the CTIC F1 Shenzen China Team, enters the season as defending triple world champion having in 2016 become only the third driver in the sport's history to win three back-to-back drivers' championships.[2] However, Chiappe's streak as champion was ended by Italy's Alex Carella for the Team Abu Dhabi, who secured his fourth drivers' championship.

Teams and drivers

Team	Hull	Engine	No.	Race drivers	Rounds	Reserve driver(s)
CTIC F1 Shenzen China	Moore	Mercury 2.5 V6	1	Philippe Chiappe[3]	All	Xiong Ziwei Nelson Morin
			2	Peter Morin[3]	All
Victory Team	BaBa	Mercury 2.5 V6	3	Ahmed Al Hameli[4]	All
	Moore		4	Shaun Torrente[4]	All
Team Abu Dhabi	DAC	Mercury 2.5 V6	5	Thani Al Qamzi[5]	All
			6	Alex Carella[5]	All
			7	Rashed Al Qamzi[5]	All
F1 Atlantic Team	DAC	Mercury 2.5 V6	9	Grant Trask[6]	All	Stefan Hagin
	Moore		10	Duarte Benavente[6]	All
Mad-Croc BaBa Racing	BaBa	Mercury 2.5 V6	11	Sami Seliö	All	Ferdinand Zandbergen
			12	Filip Roms	All
Team Sweden	Molgaard	Mercury 2.5 V6	14	Jonas Andersson[7]	All
	DAC		15	Erik Stark[7]	All
			16	Erik Edin	5–6
Blaze Performance	DAC	Mercury 2.5 V6	23	Bartek Marszalek	All	Roberto Lo Piano
	Blaze		24	Francesco Cantando	All
Emirates Racing Team	BaBa	Mercury 2.5 V6	50	Marit Strømøy	All
	DAC		51	Mike Szymura	All
	Dragon		77	Matthew Palfreyman	5–6
Maverick F1	DAC	Mercury 2.5 V6	70	Beranger Robart[8]	2, 6
	Moore		73	Cédric Deguisne	All
			74	Amaury Jousseaume	1–5

Team and driver changes

The biggest change prior to the 2017 season getting underway was Scott Gillman's takeover of the management of the Victory Team.[4] There had been doubt since the end of 2016 about the outfit's participation for the following season[9] until Gillman was unveiled as the new team manager a month prior to the first race of the year in Portugal. Shaun Torrente was retained and paired with Ahmed Al Hameli.[10] Gillman's existing Emirates Racing team had initially appeared to sign Australian Grant Trask who had impressed in his two outings at the end of 2016, and was slated to be replacing Swedish driver Erik Stark.[11] However it later transpired that Trask's hiring had been misreported and that Gillman was in fact moving Marit Strømøy and Mike Szymura from the EMIC Racing Team, which would close for 2017, into his Emirates Racing outfit.[12]

Consequently Trask was correctly revealed as an F1 Atlantic driver, replacing Christophe Larigot at Duarte Benavente's team,[6] while Stark rejoined fellow Swede Jonas Andersson's Team Sweden outfit, with which he had made his debut in the series back in 2012.[7]

Having run three boats at the final round of 2016, Team Abu Dhabi boss Guido Cappellini confirmed that all three of his drivers at the Sharjah race - Alex Carella, Thani Al Qamzi and Rashed Al Qamzi - would be retained in full time drives for 2017.[5] While at reigning champions CTIC China, Xiong Ziwei was replaced by Frenchman Peter Morin who had been the team's reserve driver the previous year. The change was effectively a straight swap, with Ziwei assuming the reserve driver position for 2017 alongside Nelson Morin.[3]

After entering the European races for the past two seasons, Cédric Deguisne's Maverick F1 team assumed a full-time entry for the 2017 season, and hired fellow Frenchman Amaury Jousseaume to make his series debut as the team's second driver. At their home race in Évian, the young team expanded with a third boat for debutant Beranger Robart, bringing the number of French drivers on the grid to five.[8]

Season calendar

A seven-race preliminary calendar for the 2017 championship was revealed in a press release on the sport's official website in January.[1] This maintained the same number of races as in 2016, however the Grand Prix of Dubai did not return, with the Portuguese round moving to season opener for the first time since 2010. As well as Portugal, the French round was also retained and the European leg will be followed by two races in China, with one initially confirmed in Harbin and a second confirmed later in the year at regular venue Liuzhou. The fifth race of the year was scheduled to be held in Asia in November, but this event was removed midway through the season in a familiar pattern to previous years. This subsequently reduced the calendar to six races. The season will be concluded with the traditional two races in the UAE in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

Round	Race Title	Date	Circuit Location	Race Winner	Hull/Engine
1	16th Grand Prix of Portugal	23 April	Portimão	Philippe Chiappe	Moore/Mercury
2	21st Grand Prix of France	2 July	Évian-les-Bains	Alex Carella	DAC/Mercury
3	21st Grand Prix of China	13 August	Harbin	Erik Stark	DAC/Mercury
4	22nd Grand Prix of China	1 October	Liuzhou	Alex Carella	DAC/Mercury
5	25th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi	8 December	Abu Dhabi	Philippe Chiappe	Moore/Mercury
6	18th Grand Prix of Sharjah	15 December	Sharjah	Alex Carella	DAC/Mercury

Results and standings

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

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	20	15	12	9	7	5	4	3	2	1

Drivers standings

Pos Driver POR FRA CHN CHN ABU SHA Points 1 Alex Carella 4 1 4 1 3 1 90 2 Philippe Chiappe 1 Ret 5 3 1 4 68 3 Erik Stark 8 7 1 2 5 Ret 49 4 Thani Al Qamzi DNS 6 2 6 7 3 41 5 Jonas Andersson Ret 5 6 Ret 6 2 32 6 Sami Seliö 2 2 Ret 14 DNS DNS 30 7 Ahmed Al Hameli DNS 4 3 4 11 Ret 30 8 Shaun Torrente Ret 3 Ret 5 4 Ret 28 9 Marit Strømøy Ret 8 DSQ Ret 2 8 21 10 Bartek Marszalek 5 Ret 7 8 DNS 5 21 11 Duarte Benavente 3 9 Ret Ret 14 10 15 12 Peter Morin 9 11 10 12 9 6 10 13 Grant Trask 7 Ret 12 13 10 7 9 14 Filip Roms Ret Ret 8 9 8 Ret 8 15 Cedric Deguisne 6 14 9 16 Ret Ret 7 16 Mike Szymura DSQ Ret 13 7 Ret Ret 4 17 Rashed Al Qamzi DNS 12 11 11 12 9 2 18 Francesco Cantando Ret 10 Ret 10 Ret Ret 2 19 Amaury Jousseaume Ret 13 Ret 15 Ret 0 Beranger Robart Ret DNS 0 Erik Edin DNS 11 0 Matthew Palfreyman DNS Ret 0

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Text formatting Meaning Bold Pole position Italics Fastest lap

Teams standings

Only boats with results eligible for points counting towards the teams' championship are shown here.

Pos Team Boat No. POR FRA CHN CHN ABU SHA Points 1 Team Abu Dhabi 5 DNS 6 2 6 7 3 131 6 4 1 4 1 3 1 2 Team Sweden 14 Ret 5 6 Ret 6 2 81 15 8 7 1 2 5 Ret 3 CTIC F1 Shenzen China 1 1 Ret 5 3 1 4 78 2 9 11 10 12 9 6 4 Victory Team 3 DNS 4 3 4 11 Ret 58 4 Ret 3 Ret 5 4 Ret 5 Mad-Croc BaBa Racing 11 2 2 Ret 14 DNS DNS 38 12 Ret Ret 8 9 8 Ret 6 Emirates Racing Team 50 Ret 8 DSQ Ret 2 8 25 51 DSQ Ret 13 7 Ret Ret 7 F1 Atlantic Team 9 7 Ret 12 13 10 7 24 10 3 9 Ret Ret 14 10 8 Blaze Performance 23 5 Ret 7 8 DNS 5 23 24 Ret 10 Ret 10 Ret Ret 9 Maverick F1 73 6 14 9 16 Ret Ret 7 74 Ret 13 Ret 15 Ret

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Text formatting Meaning Bold Pole position Italics Fastest lap

References

1. "2017 CALENDAR ANNOUNCED". F1H2O. 30 January 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
2. "TORRENTE WINS IN SHARJAH - CHIAPPE CROWNED WORLD CHAMPION". F1H2O. 16 December 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
3. "PETER MORIN CONFIRMED AS PHILIPPE CHIAPPE'S NEW TEAMMATE". F1H2O. 31 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
4. "SCOTT GILLMAN CONFIRMS NEW LOOK AND EXCITING NEW LINE UP". F1H2O. 27 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
5. "ABU DHABI CONFIRM THREE BOAT LINE UP". F1H2O. 15 March 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
6. "BENAVENTE CONFIRMS TRASK AS TEAMMATE". F1H2O. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
7. "STARK JOINS ANDERSSON AT TEAM SWEDEN". F1H2O. 17 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
8. "MAVERICK F1 RACING CONFIRM ROBART FOR GP OF FRANCE". F1H2O. 23 June 2017. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
9. David Sewell (19 December 2016). "TWELVE DAYS IN UAE AND CHIAPPE IS STILL WORLD CHAMPION". Raceboat International. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
10. David Sewell (26 March 2017). "TORRENTE AND AL HAMELI SPEARHEAD VICTORY TEAM". Raceboat International. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
11. "GRANT TRASK JOINS EMIRATES RACING". F1H2O. 27 January 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
12. David Sewell (18 March 2017). "WORLD F1 MUSICAL CHAIRS". Raceboat International. Retrieved 27 March 2017.

External links

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