Dubai: Dubai-based Victory Team is launching a double assault at this weekend’s penultimate round of the 2015 UIM F1 World Championship to be held in Abu Dhabi.
Saif Bin Markhan Al Ketbi, President, World Professional Powerboat Association (WPPA) and Director-General, Office of the Crown Prince of Dubai, unveiled two brand-new Victory Team boats that will be at the starting line at the penultimate round on December 11-12.
Both boat hulls have been cast and built at Victory Team’s in-house facility located in Jebel Ali with the hope that the Dubai-based multiple world champions can be genuine contenders for the F1 world crown this season, if not next year.
“The bigger thinking in launching our own boats was to have a sense of fulfillment as one of the foremost powerboating teams in the world. Victory Team has won the Class One and X Cats world crowns, and now it is time to turn our attention to the popular F1 category as well,” Arif Al Zafein, Executive Director of Victory Team and multiple Class One World Champion told Gulf News.
“We see ourselves as serious contenders for the world title this year. However, if we do not achieve that goal, then next year we will be there,” he promised.
This year’s world championship consisting of six rounds got under way in March in Qatar, heading off to France, Portugal and China before the last two rounds in the UAE. The season finale, as usual, will be held at the Buhairah Corniche in Sharjah on December 18-19.
This year, the race for the world crown is close with CTIC China Team’s French driver Philippe Chiappe leading the championship with 55 points.
Victory Team’s American driver Shaun Torrente is 16 points adrift in second with 39 points, while F1 GC Atlantic Team’s Yousuf Al Rubayan is in third with 36 points followed by Team Sweden’s Jonas Andersson with 29 points.
While Torrente will be in one boat, Al Zafein’s Class One teammate and close friend Nader Bin Hendi will be in the second boat in the final two rounds in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. “As a team we have our ambitions and if we are going to achieve our goal of winning yet another world title then it is only fair that our drivers have the right boats to achieve this,” Al Zafein reiterated.
