2011 UIM F1 H2O WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF) – latest news
For immediate release
Saturday, February 5th, 2010
JAY PRICE JOINED BY ITALY’S ALEX CARELLA IN QATAR
TEAM FOR 2011 UIM F1 H20 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
· QMSF-backed team bidding for Teams’ and Drivers’ titles
· Qatar’s Al-Shamlan set for second season in F-4S category
· Qatar team set for maiden competitive outing in home race
DOHA (Qatar): Jay Price will be joined by young Italian sensation Alex Carella in the Qatar Team line-up for the 2011 UIM F1 H20 World Championship, which gets underway with the Grand Prix of Qatar on Saturday, March 5.
Khalid Bin Arhama Al-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), announced that Carella has replaced Andy Elliott and will join forces with Price to try and regain the UIM F1 Drivers’ title that Price claimed for the Qatar Team in 2008.
“We are delighted that Alex is joining the Qatar Team,” said Al-Kuwari. “He is a talented young driver and will fit in perfectly alongside Jay. Our aim is to win back the Drivers’ World Championship title and also challenge for the UIM F1 Teams’ Championship.”
Carella has yet to drive the DAC boat he will use alongside Price on the planned nine rounds of this year’s UIM F1 series and will need some time in the cockpit before the opening race in Doha Bay, having used a BaBa boat in 2010.
The 25-year-old Italian has taken part in just eight F1 races but finished a superb third in the 2010 UIM F1 H20 Drivers’ standings. Born at Codogno in Italy, Carella won the 2009 F1000 World Championship, finished second in the 2008 F2 World Cup and first in the 2008 F2 match race.
In 2007, he finished fifth in the F2 World Cup and second in the Italian F2 Championship – a feat he also achieved in 2006. He was also the 2003 F1000 Italian Champion and the 2004 F1000 European Champion.
Price began racing in 1983 and is a veteran of 47 F1 Grand Prix. He finished second overall in the title race to Finland’s Selio in 2010, despite winning races in Liuzhou and Qatar, finishing second in Abu Dhabi and third in St. Petersburg. Since 2006, a consistent Price has finished eighth, fifth, first, fourth and second in the UIM F1 World Championship.
Al-Kuwari also confirmed that Khalid Saleh Al-Shamlan, 34, will represent the Qatar Team in the UIM F-4S Championship which was introduced to run alongside the main F1 races for the first time in 2010.
Al-Shamlan showed rapid progress during his first full season of competitive racing and finished sixth overall in the inaugural UIM F-4S Championship in his BaBa. He achieved a career-best third position in the first of the two races in Sharjah last December and is relishing the prospect of pushing for the podium on a regular basis in 2011.
The Qatar Team runs under the auspices of the QMSF and the presidency of His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and will tackle all rounds of this year’s UIM F1 H20 World Championship.
Championship promoters are still finalising the calendar of races: six of the nine Grand Prix have been confirmed in Doha (March 5), St. Petersburg (July 3), Kazan (July 17), Kiev (July 31), Abu Dhabi (December 9) and Sharjah (December 16) and there are provisional dates in the diary for races in Portimao (May 29), Liuzhou (October 2) and a second race in China (October 30).
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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