A year after the last exciting title awarded at the end of 2019, after skipping a weird and crazy Covid year with no racing, the 2021 UIM F1H2O World Championship is ready to kick-off!
With new entries and some changes of the historical F1 teams structures 10 teams are lining up all set to start competing again for the UIM F1h2o World title.
The first big change is the new team “Strømøy Racing” located in Sandefjord, Norway.
After 13 years in F1 in different teams Marit Strømøy, the Norway’s first lady of Motorsport and “UIM 2019 Driver of the year” , decided it was time to have her own team, to continue the partnership with Bartek Marszalek as second driver and Andrea Colombo, as team manager.
“I am very grateful to Paola Gillman for all the seasons together- said Marit- with Paola and Scott I have improved as a driver and as a manager of my own boat and crew. Now I am very proud to race under the Norwegian flag”.
The first driver reshuffle of the year was announced last January by Jonas Andersson, last year’s world championship runner-up and owner of Team Sweden, Andersson confirmed that 21-year-old Finn Kalle Viippo will make his UIM F1H2O debut after signing up to race for team Sweden jointly with Jonas.
CTIC F1 Shenzhen China Team fields an unchanged line up with three-time champion Philippe Chiappe starting his 21st year on the tour and Peter Morin his 5th.
New entry in Maverick Team with the South Africa F1 Champion Brett Stuart to join Cedric Deguisne.
Scott Gillman put the final piece of the 2020 teams puzzle with his new Gillman F1 Racing that will include American Greg Foster, one of the most experiences racer on the North American Tour, and the four-time world champion Alex Carella.
The news of Carella comes as no surprise as Gillman guided his “protégé” through the latter stages of last season after both exited Victory Team and Carella continued racing under the umbrella of Maverick F1 Racing Team on Gillman’s DAC. The moved paid immediately dividends with the Italian taking his 16th career pole position and race win at the Censtar Grand Prix of Xiamen in China.
In Sharjah Team twice world champion Sami Selio teams up again with fellow-Finn Filip Roms, to defend the colour of Sharjah Emirate.
Duarte Benavente is another experience pilot set for his 22nd season. The Portugal-based F1 Atlantic outfit’s team owner/driver will confirm in the next weeks who shall be taking the vacant seat in the team.
Not surprisingly the Team Abu Dhabi line up is unchanged with twice and defending world champion Shaun Torrente and world number four Thani Al Qemzi set to continue their inter-team rivalry as the team sets out in its bids to retain its current stranglehold on both the driver and teams world championships and extend its winning run to four seasons.
Blaze Performance’s Francesco Cantando having made his series debut in 1996 this year he celebrates his 25th season in F1, the German lady driver Simone Bianca Schuft will replace Greg Foster who left the team at the end of January.
Another new entry is Comparato Racing lining up as top driver the 23-year-old Italian Alberto Comparato former F2 world champion, Alberto who comes from 2 seasons with Duarte Benavente in Atlantic team is now ready to race as a privateer with his own team.
H2O Racing will soon confirm the 2021 tentative calendar that sees events scheduled in Europe, Asia and Middle East.
