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2017 F1 Powerboat World Championship
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The 2017 UIM F1 H₂O World Championship was the 34th season of Formula 1 Powerboat racing. An initial seven race calendar was released at the end of January, with the championship scheduled to begin in Portimão, Portugal on 23 April and conclude in Sharjah, UAE on 15 December.^[1]

Philippe Chiappe, driving for the CTIC F1 Shenzhen China Team, enters the season as defending triple world champion having in 2016 become only the third driver in the sport's history to win three back-to-back drivers' championships.^[2] However, Chiappe's streak as champion was ended by Italy's Alex Carella for the Team Abu Dhabi, who secured his fourth drivers' championship.

Teams and drivers

Team	Hull	Engine	No.	Race drivers	Rounds	Reserve driver(s)
CTIC F1 Shenzhen China	Moore	Mercury 2.5 V6	1	Philippe Chiappe^[3]	All	Xiong Ziwei Nelson Morin
CTIC F1 Shenzhen China	Moore	Mercury 2.5 V6	2	Peter Morin^[3]	All	Xiong Ziwei Nelson Morin
Victory Team	BaBa	Mercury 2.5 V6	3	Ahmed Al Hameli^[4]	All
Victory Team	Moore	Mercury 2.5 V6	4	Shaun Torrente^[4]	All
Team Abu Dhabi	DAC	Mercury 2.5 V6	5	Thani Al Qamzi^[5]	All
			6	Alex Carella^[5]	All
			7	Rashed Al Qamzi^[5]	All
F1 Atlantic Team	DAC	Mercury 2.5 V6	9	Grant Trask^[6]	All	Stefan Hagin
F1 Atlantic Team	Moore	Mercury 2.5 V6	10	Duarte Benavente^[6]	All	Stefan Hagin
Mad-Croc BaBa Racing	BaBa	Mercury 2.5 V6	11	Sami Seliö	All	Ferdinand Zandbergen
Mad-Croc BaBa Racing	BaBa	Mercury 2.5 V6	12	Filip Roms	All	Ferdinand Zandbergen
Team Sweden	Molgaard	Mercury 2.5 V6	14	Jonas Andersson^[7]	All
	DAC		15	Erik Stark^[7]	All
	DAC		16	Erik Edin	5–6
Blaze Performance	DAC	Mercury 2.5 V6	23	Bartek Marszalek	All	Roberto Lo Piano
Blaze Performance	Blaze	Mercury 2.5 V6	24	Francesco Cantando	All	Roberto Lo Piano
Emirates Racing Team	BaBa	Mercury 2.5 V6	50	Marit Strømøy	All
	DAC		51	Mike Szymura	All
	Dragon		77	Matthew Palfreyman	5–6
Maverick F1	DAC	Mercury 2.5 V6	70	Beranger Robart^[8]	2, 6
	Moore		73	Cédric Deguisne	All
	Moore		74	Amaury Jousseaume	1–5

Team and driver changes

The biggest change prior to the 2017 season getting underway was Scott Gillman's takeover of the management of the Victory Team.^[4] There had been doubt since the end of 2016 about the outfit's participation for the following season^[9] until Gillman was unveiled as the new team manager a month prior to the first race of the year in Portugal. Shaun Torrente was retained and paired with Ahmed Al Hameli.^[10] Gillman's existing Emirates Racing team had initially appeared to sign Australian Grant Trask who had impressed in his two outings at the end of 2016, and was slated to be replacing Swedish driver Erik Stark.^[11] However it later transpired that Trask's hiring had been misreported and that Gillman was in fact moving Marit Strømøy and Mike Szymura from the EMIC Racing Team, which would close for 2017, into his Emirates Racing outfit.^[12]

Consequently Trask was correctly revealed as an F1 Atlantic driver, replacing Christophe Larigot at Duarte Benavente's team,^[6] while Stark rejoined fellow Swede Jonas Andersson's Team Sweden outfit, with which he had made his debut in the series back in 2012.^[7]

Having run three boats at the final round of 2016, Team Abu Dhabi boss Guido Cappellini confirmed that all three of his drivers at the Sharjah race - Alex Carella, Thani Al Qamzi and Rashed Al Qamzi - would be retained in full time drives for 2017.^[5] While at reigning champions CTIC China, Xiong Ziwei was replaced by Frenchman Peter Morin who had been the team's reserve driver the previous year. The change was effectively a straight swap, with Ziwei assuming the reserve driver position for 2017 alongside Nelson Morin.^[3]

After entering the European races for the past two seasons, Cédric Deguisne's Maverick F1 team assumed a full-time entry for the 2017 season, and hired fellow Frenchman Amaury Jousseaume to make his series debut as the team's second driver. At their home race in Évian, the young team expanded with a third boat for debutant Beranger Robart, bringing the number of French drivers on the grid to five.^[8]

Season calendar

A seven-race preliminary calendar for the 2017 championship was revealed in a press release on the sport's official website in January.^[1] This maintained the same number of races as in 2016, however the Grand Prix of Dubai did not return, with the Portuguese round moving to season opener for the first time since 2010. As well as Portugal, the French round was also retained and the European leg will be followed by two races in China, with one initially confirmed in Harbin and a second confirmed later in the year at regular venue Liuzhou. The fifth race of the year was scheduled to be held in Asia in November, but this event was removed midway through the season in a familiar pattern to previous years. This subsequently reduced the calendar to six races. The season will be concluded with the traditional two races in the UAE in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.

Round	Race Title	Date	Circuit Location	Race Winner	Hull/Engine
1	16th Grand Prix of Portugal	23 April	Portimão	Philippe Chiappe	Moore/Mercury
2	21st Grand Prix of France	2 July	Évian-les-Bains	Alex Carella	DAC/Mercury
3	21st Grand Prix of China	13 August	Harbin	Erik Stark	DAC/Mercury
4	22nd Grand Prix of China	1 October	Liuzhou	Alex Carella	DAC/Mercury
5	25th Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi	8 December	Abu Dhabi	Philippe Chiappe	Moore/Mercury
6	18th Grand Prix of Sharjah	15 December	Sharjah	Alex Carella	DAC/Mercury

Results and standings

Points are awarded to the top 10 classified finishers. A maximum of two boats per team are eligible for points in the teams' championship.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	20	15	12	9	7	5	4	3	2	1

Drivers standings

Pos	Driver	POR	FRA	CHN	CHN	ABU	SHA	Points
1	Alex Carella	4	1	4	1	3	1	90
2	Philippe Chiappe	1	Ret	5	3	1	4	68
3	Erik Stark	8	7	1	2	5	Ret	49
4	Thani Al Qamzi	DNS	6	2	6	7	3	41
5	Jonas Andersson	Ret	5	6	Ret	6	2	32
6	Sami Seliö	2	2	Ret	14	DNS	DNS	30
7	Ahmed Al Hameli	DNS	4	3	4	11	Ret	30
8	Shaun Torrente	Ret	3	Ret	5	4	Ret	28
9	Marit Strømøy	Ret	8	DSQ	Ret	2	8	21
10	Bartek Marszalek	5	Ret	7	8	DNS	5	21
11	Duarte Benavente	3	9	Ret	Ret	14	10	15
12	Peter Morin	9	11	10	12	9	6	10
13	Grant Trask	7	Ret	12	13	10	7	9
14	Filip Roms	Ret	Ret	8	9	8	Ret	8
15	Cedric Deguisne	6	14	9	16	Ret	Ret	7
16	Mike Szymura	DSQ	Ret	13	7	Ret	Ret	4
17	Rashed Al Qamzi	DNS	12	11	11	12	9	2
18	Francesco Cantando	Ret	10	Ret	10	Ret	Ret	2
19	Amaury Jousseaume	Ret	13	Ret	15	Ret		0
	Beranger Robart		Ret				DNS	0
	Erik Edin					DNS	11	0
	Matthew Palfreyman					DNS	Ret	0

Key
Colour	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	Second place
Bronze	Third place
Green	Other points position
Blue	Other classified position
Blue	Not classified, finished (NC)
Purple	Not classified, retired (Ret)
Red	Did not qualify (DNQ)
Red	Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did not start (DNS)
White	Race cancelled (C)
Blank	Did not practice (DNP)
	Excluded (EX)
	Did not arrive (DNA)
	Withdrawn (WD)
	Did not enter (cell empty)
Text formatting	Meaning
Bold	Pole position
Italics	Fastest lap

Teams standings

Only boats with results eligible for points counting towards the teams' championship are shown here.

Pos	Team	Boat No.	POR	FRA	CHN	CHN	ABU	SHA	Points
1	Team Abu Dhabi	5	DNS	6	2	6	7	3	131
1	Team Abu Dhabi	6	4	1	4	1	3	1	131
2	Team Sweden	14	Ret	5	6	Ret	6	2	81
2	Team Sweden	15	8	7	1	2	5	Ret	81
3	CTIC F1 Shenzhen China	1	1	Ret	5	3	1	4	78
3	CTIC F1 Shenzhen China	2	9	11	10	12	9	6	78
4	Victory Team	3	DNS	4	3	4	11	Ret	58
4	Victory Team	4	Ret	3	Ret	5	4	Ret	58
5	Mad-Croc BaBa Racing	11	2	2	Ret	14	DNS	DNS	38
5	Mad-Croc BaBa Racing	12	Ret	Ret	8	9	8	Ret	38
6	Emirates Racing Team	50	Ret	8	DSQ	Ret	2	8	25
6	Emirates Racing Team	51	DSQ	Ret	13	7	Ret	Ret	25
7	F1 Atlantic Team	9	7	Ret	12	13	10	7	24
7	F1 Atlantic Team	10	3	9	Ret	Ret	14	10	24
8	Blaze Performance	23	5	Ret	7	8	DNS	5	23
8	Blaze Performance	24	Ret	10	Ret	10	Ret	Ret	23
9	Maverick F1	73	6	14	9	16	Ret	Ret	7
9	Maverick F1	74	Ret	13	Ret	15	Ret		7

Key
Colour	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	Second place
Bronze	Third place
Green	Other points position
Blue	Other classified position
Blue	Not classified, finished (NC)
Purple	Not classified, retired (Ret)
Red	Did not qualify (DNQ)
Red	Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ)
Black	Disqualified (DSQ)
White	Did not start (DNS)
White	Race cancelled (C)
Blank	Did not practice (DNP)
	Excluded (EX)
	Did not arrive (DNA)
	Withdrawn (WD)
	Did not enter (cell empty)
Text formatting	Meaning
Bold	Pole position
Italics	Fastest lap