UIM F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi, round 5 of 6
December 7th-8th, 2006
For immediate release
Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
QATAR TEAM AIMS TO END F1 SEASON IN WINNING STYLE
Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF) looks ahead to bright F1 racing future
DOHA (Qatar): The Qatar F1 Team heads into the final two races of the UIM F1 World Championship season in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates buoyed by Price??s superb second overall in the Chengdu-based Grand Prix of China in October.
Team mates Massimo Roggiero and Jay Price have been improving all the time in their 2.5-litre BaBa boats and showed on the river course, near Chengdu, in China that they both have the pace and the experience to match the reigning F1 World Champion Guido Cappellini and Scott Gillman of the Emirates Team, his arch rival for this year??s title. Price finished as runner-up in China and Roggiero showed his pace during the qualifying and practice sessions before withdrawing from the actual race.
??Jay and Massimo are in form and getting better all the time,?? said Mohammed Al-Jaidah, Head of Formula racing at the Doha-based Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF). ??We will not have chance to test before the race weekend, because the equipment has come back from China and the team is heading in from Europe, but I feel sure that a top six time is on the cards for qualifying and Abu Dhabi is the type of course where you can overtake easier than China and Italy, so I am pretty confident that we can achieve another good result in the race.??
Louisiana-based Price has vast powerboat racing experience in a wide range of formulae and finished second overall in the 2005 UIM F2000 Championship. Despite his lack of F1 experience, the American showed his courage in China to reach the podium, but realises that the testing course laid out in Abu Dhabi will not be easy, as he lines up against local favourite Thani Al-Qamzi from the Emirates Team. Price is also in contention for the coveted ??Rookie of the Year?? award and is up against the likes of Italy??s Ivan Brigada and Sweden??s Jonas Andersson for this award.
Thirty-nine-year-old team mate Roggiero finished ninth in last year??s UIM F1 Championship, but that first elusive win for the Qatar Team is surely just around the corner and the Italian heads for the UAE??s commercial capital determined to make up for the events in China.
Meanwhile, the Qatar Marine Sports Federation is already planning ahead for an exciting future in UIM F1 racing and there are plans afoot to re-introduce a Qatari driver into the Formula One scene.
~The plan is to carry out a test session after the Abu Dhabi race with six or seven of the most promising Qatar racers from the Pleasure Boat scene and choose one or two of the most promising ones,~ added Al-Jaidah.
~Then we will test one of the drivers out in F2 racing in 2007, before he makes the eventual graduation to the full F1 team. Maybe as early as 2008 we will have three boats racing in F1.~
Ends
For further information:
Neil Perkins, NDP Publicity Services, Qatar Mobile: + 974 5435185, UK Mobile: + 44 7831 123153, E-mail: ndppublicity@compuserve.com. www.ndp-publicity.com (press releases).
www.f1boat.com
www.qmsf.org