ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Monday, November 30, 2009 – Success comes in many forms and for one race team in the 2009 U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship for power boating has proven to be a win-win format from day one.
Swedish driver Jonas Andersson, a legendary driver from Scandinavia who has worked hard to bring himself up to the top level of all powerboat racing, has joined forces with the exotic and oil rich country of Azerbaijan to combine a strong presence in F1 this season with Andersson currently third in the drivers championship with 99 points on the strength of victories in St. Petersburg, Russia and Liuzhou, China.
“My association with Azerbaijan has been nothing but first class all season,” said Jonas. “They understand the business of presenting a good image both on and off the water, while making sure that the commit to excellence is shown around the world. I feel our racing schedule tied in with our television package and live web streaming which our circuit brings to them is the exposure they desired race after race.”
Jonas, who is in his fourth F1 season, comes from a tradition rich boat racing country that saw him start racing in 1998 and almost immediately jump into F2000 competition where he immediately made a mark for himself scoring well in the Scandinavian series before making the big jump to the World Championship in F2000 winning the title twice in 2003 and 2004.
Never tired of trying to do better, Jonas started to travel outside Europe, winning the Middle East “Presidents Cup” and then the Scandinavian Championship in 2005 before moving into F1 the following season. Having now run a total of 33 career F1 races, Andersson has four victories and 10 top three performances and has been on the podium three times in his last six starts this season.
Meanwhile, his sponsored country Azerbaijan, located in the Caucasus region of Eurasia at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, got it's independence from the former Soviet Union on the 18th of October of 1991. It is a Presidential Republic with an area of 86,600 km (33,436 square miles) with a population estimated in July 2008 of 8,177,000 million and has large reserves of oil and natural gas as well as a myriad of other minerals which make it an important economic hub for transportation of minerals throughout the two continents.
The U.I.M. F1 H2O World Championship has arrived in Abu Dhabi as the tour gets set for a pair of races this week beginning with December fourth's event followed by Saturday the fifth. The series has come down to the final four rounds and Jonas Andersson is caught up right in the mix for his first title. He trails on home driver Thani Al Qamzi from Team Abu Dhabi who has earned 112 points along with Nine-time World Champion Guido Cappellini of Italy in his Zepter sponsored hull with 109.
Both race events will be one-half hour plus, two green flag lap Grand Prix's that will run along the corniche waterfront in Abu Dhabi marking the17th Grand Prix and making this the longest running on the calendar. Race time both on Friday and Saturday will be at 15:30 local UTC, 11:30 GMT and 06:30 EST in North America.
Both events can be followed live by going to the www.f1h2o.com website.
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