Comparato Replaces Torrente And More Team Changes Ahead Of Action-Packed 2024 F1H2O Season
A few weeks ago, not long before three-time world-champion driver Shaun Torrente announced his retirement from the Union Internationale Motonautiqe F1H2O World Championship, the international tunnel boat-racing series released its 2024 calendar, which is expected to be action-packed with new races in Vietnam and Albania as well as back-to-back Grand Prix events in the People’s Republic of China.
As it did in 2023, the F1H2O season opens with the Grand Prix of Indonesia, which was embraced enthusiastically by the community in Sumatra. Photos courtesy Simon Palfrader and Arek Rejs/F1H2O
Although finishing touches are still being applied to what F1H2O is calling a “thrilling new calendar of events,” there have been several team and driver changes for the 2024 season, which kicks off February 23-25 with the Grand Prix of Indonesia on the spectacular volcanic Lake Toba in Sumatra.
Shortly after Team Sweden became Team Bình Ðịnh-Vietnam and two-time F1H2O world champion Sami Seliö’s confirmed that he will manage and drive for the newly sponsored Red Devil-SMC F1 Team in 2024 alongside his teammate Ferdinand Zandbergen, Team Abu Dhabi announced that Young Italian Alberto Comparato (below) will replace Torrente as the team’s second driver.
The team operating out of the Abu Dhabi Marine Sports Club announced last week that Thani Al-Qemzi will lead the lineup with Rashed Al-Qemzi signed up as the reserve driver. Comparato, 25, made his F1H2O debut in 2019 and followed his father, Fabio, into the top echelon of world powerboat circuit racing. After winning the 2018 UIM F2 world championship to add to World, European and National titles in the UIM F4 discipline, he finished 10th in the championship at his first attempt and has since finished 14th, eighth and 11th—collecting one pole position in Italy in 2021 and one podium finish in Sharjah in 2022.
In other team news, Maverick Racing confirmed that the French duo of Alexandre Bourgeot and Cédric Deguisne will continue to race the two Moore boats under the management of Jean Vital Deguisne.
The sport’s most-decorated American racer, Scott Gillman, is going to be managing for a “new team” in 2024 as his Mad Croc Gillman Racing team has been acquired by the UAE emirate of Sharjah and will become the Sharjah Team this season.
Gilman, who was world champ in 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2006, will continue to act as the team manager in an exciting new operation owned by Sharjah Marine and representative team owner Ahmed Al-Hosani, director general of the Sharjah International Marine Sports Club.
Canadian racer Rusty Wyatt has been signed as the team’s primary driver and will make his F1H2O racing debut in Indonesia next month. The 28-year-old Wyatt, who is from Innisfil in Ontario, has been competing stateside for several season with the Crystal Clear/Rusty Wyatt Racing team in the F1 Powerboat Championship. In 2023, he finished fourth overall behind veterans Terry
Filip Roms has been retained as the team’s second driver. Roms, 29, finished eighth in last year’s drivers’ championship and has amassed 55 race starts since he burst on to the F1H2O racing scene in 2012.
The Mad Croc Gillman Racing Team’s Scott Gilman (second from left) is now managing his team under the Sharjah Marine umbrella.
Getting back to the 2024 season schedule, which has many teams excited to get started, a new race in Vietnam was announced midway through last year and that inaugural Grand Prix of Bình Đinh, Vietnam takes place at the end of March. According to an F1H2O press release, the race will be based on a challenging course at Qui Nhon in the Bình Đinh Province.
Europe will host rounds three and four in mid June and early July, with Italy set to stage another Grand Prix and Albania joining the calendar for the first time. The first ever Grand Prix of Albania will take place on Lake Ohrid, near the city of Pogradec.
Exact locations for back-to-back races in China are still to be finalized but the vast People’s Republic returned to the F1H2O racing calendar with a Grand Prix in Zhengzhou in 2023 and the two races have been set for the end of September.
A to-be-announced Grand Prix of Asia is expected to take place in November before the traditional season finale—the Road to Sharjah-Grand Prix of Sharjah—on Khalid Lagoon in the UAE’s third largest emirate in December.
Check out the full 2024 UIM F1H2O World Championship calendar here:
Grand Prix of Indonesia, Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia, February 23-25
Grand Prix of Bình Đinh, Vietnam, Qui Nhon, Bình Đinh province, Vietnam, March 29-31
Grand Prix of Italy, TBA, Italy, June 14-16
Grand Prix of Albania, Pogradec, Albania, July 5-7
Grand Prix of China 1, TBA, China, September 20-22
Grand Prix of China 2, TBA, China, September 27-29
Grand Prix of Asia, TBA, Asia, November TBA
Road to Sharjah-Grand Prix of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE, December TBA
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