2010 UIM F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
8th Grand Prix of Qatar, Doha – November 25-27, round 6 of 8
For immediate release
Wednesday, November 24th 2010
QATAR’S SHEIKH HASSAN PRAISES STATUS AND
STRENGTH OF UIM F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
· Qatar Team’s Price set to revert to older DAC for home race
· QMSF staff pleased with progress of Khaled Shamlan in F-4S
DOHA (Qatar): His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani, the president of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), has praised the current status and strength in depth of the UIM F1 World Championship.
The QMSF are hosting the sixth round of the increasingly popular series in Doha Bay this weekend and Sheikh Hassan has praised the efforts of the event promoters in organising a global championship, which consistently attracts a field of over 20 drivers from 13 countries and which has recently introduced an exciting F-4S feeder series.
“The F1 series has proven that it is solid and has a steady foundation with around 20 entries,” enthused Sheikh Hassan. “The decision to run F4 as well means that you are keeping the attention of the spectators for the day with continuous race action, rather than seeing them coming along for just two hours per day. That is the future of the sport.
“I think that F4 is one of the best things that has happened in the sport for ages…and the fact that it goes around with F1 is great. It is a superb entry level for the teams including us. We are planning to run a local F2 series in Qatar in the future, so hopefully we can start getting together a list of names and working on this at the end of the season of F4.
“The plan is to put Khaled (Saleh Al-) Shamlan into F1 in time, but he needs to push himself a little bit more. It is too early to ask this of him at the moment. We are keeping an eye on his performances. We will test him in F2 and then make those decisions later on.
“As far as we are concerned with the Qatar Team, it is crucial that we have the reliability. In China recently we were forced to change an engine and that meant that Jay (Price) started 10 positions back on the grid for the race. We all know that Jay is capable of driving from the back of the grid to the top of the podium, but we need to make it easier on him if we can.
“So we have gone back to the drawing board with some issues and feel that the older boat will be ideally suited to the water conditions here in Doha. It tends to get a little bit choppy here towards the afternoon at the time of the race and Jay is happy with the set-up, so that’s the ideal plan for us. Jay just needs to do a good job in qualifying to set him up well for Saturday’s race.”
“The boat Jay used in Shenzhen will be shipped from here with all the containers for Abu Dhabi and will be repaired there with the possibility of using it again in Sharjah at the end of the season,” added Khalid Bin Arhama Al-Kuwari, Head of Formula Racing at the QMSF.
“If we are ready and Jay feels it is right, then we will use the new boat again at the last race of the year. There’s no way we could use it in Abu Dhabi because the UIM regulations state that you cannot test on a course within a week of the race.
“Khaled Shamlan has started well in F4 and we need to give him as much seat time as possible before we make the decision on whether to move him to F1. I just want him to learn and gain as much experience as possible. As for Jay, a win in our home event would be fantastic and really that is the serious goal for the weekend.”
Timetable of events – Thursday, November 25th
10.00-18.00 Technical scrutineering – F1 and F-4S
12.00-12.30 Teams registration and fuel distribution
Ends
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Neil Perkins, NDP Publicity Services, Mobile: + 44 7831 123153, E-mail: ndppublicity@googlemail.com,
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www.qmsf.org
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