ABU DHABI - Thursday, 17 May - As the hundreds of personnel that make up the UIM F1 H2O World Championship Series start arriving to the capital city of Brasilia next week for the start of the 2013 campaign and the inaugural Grand Prix of Brazil on the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of June, one driver in particular will be feeling the footsteps of one of his relatives who became famous around the world for his explorations of the region 165 years earlier.
Rinaldo Osculati, starting his fifth season on the F1 H2O tour and driving for Team Nautica, will be honoring his relative dating back five generations, Gaetano Osculati, who was a renowned explorer and naturalist who on his second voyage to South America discovered the headwaters of the Napo River in Ecuador crossing the Andes and becoming the first Italian to travel the continent from ocean to ocean.
This was no easy task in the mid 1840's. It was a daring adventure for the explorer, who set out on his journey from Marseille in August of 1846 and returned in June 1848. Gaetano brought back with him thousands of objects and documents, such as: insects, animals and a myriad of important medical plants and herbs including Cinchona which was important because it helped in fighting malaria which at the time was killing thousands of people worldwide annually.
One sidebar that makes this adventure so fascinating, was that Gaetano, while in his search for the headwaters of the Napo River, was only a few days into the journey before he was abandoned by his native guides. He succeeded in reaching the Napo alone, marching across a wide expanse of unsettled country through trackless forests. He suffered for food and during two weeks subsisted on palm leaves and a single kind of fruit.
"I am so proud to be walking in the footsteps of Gaetano, a man I feel I can almost touch since he's been mentioned in our family since I was a child," said Rinaldo. "He feels like a great uncle and I will be honoring this great man by placing a sticker on my race boat in memory of his journey. I will also be presenting by way of a donation a copy of his book "Explorations in America Equatorial" written in 1854, to the Brazilian representatives who oversaw the organization of this inaugural Grand Prix of Brazil."
"Rinni" has a reason to be proud of his distant relative who started as an adventurer when he was just 22 years old leaving Lombardy for Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor in 1830 and eventually to South America for the first time 1834.
After visiting Arabia, Armenia and Persia in 1841 he headed five years later to the United States and Canada in 1846 before sailing to the Caribbean and down to Venezuela and on to his famous second trip to South America.
Many of Gaetano's discoveries ended up in the Museum of Science and Technology in Milan where they remained until one day in 1943 when the Museum was buried in a bombing raid during the last world war.
For Rinni, 2013 will be a year of discovery as well.
As the driver from Monza, Italy who drives for Switzerland and is teammate to Norway's Marit Stromoy, currently the only woman driver in F1, he will be in search of his first ever podium top-three performance in a F1 H2O event after almost 30 previous appearances.
"I feel great entering this season," said the eldest driver in the series. "Physically I am ready and mentally I now know what it takes to finish in the top-five regularly and with my great crew we hope to do it more than a few times this season."
"Gaetano is my inspiration in Brazil. I want to once again add the family name to nothing but success in South America. When I leave the enchanting and historic area of Brasilia I want to add my own page and bring back memories that can be talked about by my family members for many generations as well."
The opening round of the 2013 UIM F1 H2O World Championship for powerboating kicks off on the 1st and 2nd of June as the series heads into a late fall afternoon and the first time to the continent of South America.
You can stay in touch with all the news and follow all racing action "live" simply by going to the official website of the UIM F1 H2O World Championship series at www.f1h2o.com.
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