Dubai: Victory Team’s American pilot hopes to make amends for an indifferent season so far with one final charge in the return leg of the 2016 UIM F1H2O World Championships.
After this weekend’s fifth round in Liuzhou, China, all attention will revert to the UAE when Abu Dhabi and Sharjah play host to the last two rounds in December.
Torrente heads into Liuzhou with 45 points, seven adrift of current leader and back-to-back reigning world champion Philippe Chiappe of the CTIC China Team. But close on the American’s heels is former three-time world champion Alex Carella with 42 points, while Sami Selio and Jonas Andersson are also in the fray for a shot at the title with 35 and 33 points respectively.
“I’m just looking at each race one at a time,” Torrente told Gulf News before his long flight to China late on Tuesday.
“The good thing for all of us at Victory Team is that we have been improving steadily, and if we can put together a clean weekend I am convinced we can get a win and push our way towards the top,” he added.
The technical scrutineering and registration will be conducted on Saturday (October 1) followed by the first free practice and BRM Qualifying on Sunday. The Liuzhou Grand Prix race will be held on October 3, after which the boats will be dispatched to the UAE for the final two rounds of the season in Abu Dhabi (December 7-9) and Sharjah (December 14-16).
“This is the first full season for Victory Team in the F1 championships. So I guess we have made a pretty solid start. But we are not ones to sit back as our goal is to keep building through the years,” Torrente said.
“The aim for us at each and every race is to end at the top of the podium. But given the fact that the next two races will be held at home in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, we will be targeting as many points as we can so that we can finish off strongly at home,” he added.
