Thursday, February 20: Peter Morin is one of the most improved racers on the UIM F1H2O World Championship circuit. But the 45-year-old Frenchman is also a realist and the China CTIC Team’s most established driver knows it will be difficult to repeat last year’s fourth place in the Drivers’ Championship, never mind push for third position or higher in the final standings.
As the resident of Le Vaudreuil explained: “Obviously, I am delighted to once again be participating in this prestigious championship with the China CTIC Team led by Philippe Dessertenne, Philippe Chiappe and Eric Chan in a team that has trusted me for many years. It is likely to be tough again given the many high-profile entrants. For the new season, our objectives are quite clear: the idea, like the previous two years, is to go for one of the top three places in the Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships. We managed to grab these places in 2023 but a place on the drivers’ podium escaped us by a few points last year.”
Erik Stark’s third place in the final Road to Sharjah-Grand Prix of Sharjah last December and fifth place for Morin enabled Stark to snatch the final place on the podium behind Jonas Andersson and Rusty Wyatt. But Morin knows what it takes to finish on the final podium, having done just that the previous year behind a runaway Andersson and Stark.
With the experience of three-time World Champion Chiappe as his radio man and an experienced crew that includes Michael Jenkins, Frederick Garcia and Valentin Gatault, Morin will again leave nothing to chance in his preparations for the new season. Although he is clearly frustrated by the lack of testing opportunities available to certain teams in the championship.
As he said: “Most of my pre-season preparations are done physically, via weekly training for me, because we don’t have access to our equipment to be able to do winter or off-season testing, as some are lucky enough to be able to do to prepare for the races in a more precise and specific way! Despite this handicap and lack of testing opportunities, we remain totally motivated and prepare as best we can in a different way for the events in which we will compete in this year.”
Morin is a relative newcomer to the F1H2O racing scene, having made his debut in 2017 at the Grand Prix of Portugal in Portimão. That season, he replaced Xiong Ziwei as Chiappe’s team-mate in the CTIC F1 Shenzhen China Team and competed in all six races with his Moore hull. Peter finished four of the six Grand Prix in the points and that culminated in a more than respectable 12th place in the Drivers’ Championship.
From that first introduction to the World Championship, he quickly propelled himself into the spotlight and finished fourth in 2018 with a first podium at the Grand Prix of London and the runner-up spot at the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi. Despite a non-finish in Sharjah, Morin actually finished the year ahead of team-mate Chiappe, who had been the World Champion in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The 2019 season was fought out over five Grand Prix but the CTIC F1 Shenzhen China Team experienced a difficult season. Morin finished seventh in the Drivers’ Championship after back-to-back retirements at the last two rounds in Xiamen and Sharjah.
When racing resumed after global travel restrictions in 2021, he finished fourth in a shortened championship and followed that with a podium finish in Mâcon in 2022 on his way to ninth in the points standings after failing to score points in four of the six Grand Prix.
Morin is a multiple winner of the demanding Rouen 24hr endurance race, the French S3000 Championship and the Class 3 Endurance World Championship. He cut his racing teeth in various French Championships as far back as 1999 and the turn of the century.
The China CTIC Team star is now a veteran of 38 F1H2O Grand Prix and has taken seven podium finishes, including four runner-up spots and three third places. That elusive maiden Grand Prix win is surely just around the corner….
