Sharjah: The UIM’s promoter for Class One offshore and F1 powerboat racing insists the sport will bounce back from its worst ever year, saying the 2015 calendar for both disciplines will be bigger and better.
Class One suffered during the season just finished, with only three races held, while F1 witnessed a truncated calendar of just five stops, including three in the Gulf region — Doha, Abu Dhabi and the traditional season-ending Sharjah Grand Prix last weekend.
One of the reasons for the scaling down of racing activity was political instability around the world, including in Ukraine, where two F1 races had been planned for 2014. Another race was scheduled in South America, but it was cancelled due to the 2014 Fifa World Cup and elections in Brazil.
“By far, 2014 was the worst calendar for us in 30 years of F1 powerboat racing. This is one season that we are not particularly proud of,” Nicolo di San Germano told Gulf News on the sidelines of the Sharjah Grand Prix.
“We already have at least five venues confirmed on the F1 calendar for 2015, including Doha, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Beijing and Liuzhou [China]. In addition, we already have bids ready from Porto [Portugal] and a venue in France.
“Personally, I think that through the new calendar we will put ourselves in a position that will more than make up for what we lost during 2014.”
San Germano, who has been Class One promoter for the last two years, explained that he and his team are also working hard to ensure a proper calendar in that class of racing.
“Once again, this year Class One was a disappointment as we had just three races. For 2015, the idea is to have between four and six events. We have an interest from Malta along with a couple of new venues on the Black Sea, and hopefully we will be in a position to announce a new Class One calendar by January,” he said.
