Dubai: The Victory Team are hopeful of securing their first points as they head into the second round of the 2017 UIM F1H2O World Championship in France this weekend.
The two-boat Dubai-based team returned empty-handed from the season-opener in Portugal’s Algarve region at the end of April. Shaun Torrente started off from pole position but crashed out with engine trouble after ten laps of the 50-lap race, while team-mate Ahmad Al Hameli was involved in a spectacular accident despite qualifying to start the main race the following day in second position.
With all teams having enough time to address early season issues, the second round of the championship to be held in Evian from July 1 to 2 is billed to be an engrossing one with teams on the lookout for valuable points as the season progresses.
Victory Team’s Torrente is keen to cash in on the positives from past experiences while heading into the second race in Evian. “I believe we are in a much better position now than what we were in Portugal. We have spent a lot of time testing extensively in Italy and we are hopeful our boats will give us better reliability in Italy,” Torrente told Gulf News from the Victory Team’s testing base in Italy.
“We are a solid team, but of course we are not in a position we would have liked to be in. We qualified very well in Portugal, but we were unfortunate as Ahmad [Al Hameli] had the accident and I had an engine failure. We would have loved heading into France with at least 20 points,” the American pilot added.
Immediately after the opener in Portugal, the Victory Team set-up headed to Italy for extensive testing and work to make the engines better equipped to accept the more environmentally-friendly fuel used for powerboat racing in Europe. This was followed by further testing last week with both Al Hameli and Torrente making a second visit before the boats went by road to France.
“There’s nothing to complain about. We are happy with the performance of the boats and the way they ran. The speed has been good, so a lot of attention has been paid to making the engines more reliable,” Torrente said.
“The main issue for us will always be the use of the fuel. This is really bad fuel. It’s a very, very volatile fuel, unlike the grade we are used to in the Middle East. It is environmentally friendly, but hard on the engines. So, we’ve had to re-adjust a lot of things for the second race and hopefully everything will fall in line for us,” he added.
Considered one of the most dynamic drivers, Torrente’s best was a runner-up position at the end of the 2013 season. The 39-year-old now wants to make up for lost time and points as he starts his 36th Grand Prix this weekend.
“I feel good going into this next round especially because it is rough waters in Evian. I believe I have a special talent handling rough conditions and I am really looking forward to this race,” he said.
“I think that we have the engine issue sorted out and nothing can stop us from being at the top of the podium in France and being where we want to be at the top of the standings. I feel we have everything as a team and all this will come together in France,” Torrente added.
