DOHA,April,12: The Qatar Team is leaving nothing to chance as it attempts to retain the UIM F1 H20 World Championship title and the Doha-based outfit has carried out a crucial five-day, pre-season test in Italy.
Defending World Champion Alex Carella and team mate Shaun Torrente attended the test in the presence of Khalid bin Arhama Al-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), engine builder and crew chief Brendan Power and several other members of the Qatar Team, including Alex Canzi and Billy Rucker.
Team driver Alex Carella won the world title for the second year in succession last season by the margin of 17 points to give the QMSF-supported team a third world title in five years. Shaun Torrente proved time and again that he was one of the fastest drivers on the F1 circuit, but a licence suspension ruined his chances of winning the last two races and he finished the season in 11th in the drivers points’ standings.
“After such a long lay-off before the first race in Brazil in June, it was important that we got some testing in to dust off the cobwebs,” said Khalid bin Arhama AL-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the QMSF, which runs under the presidency of His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani.
“We tested some new propellers and engines. It was a good chance for the team to work together again and get in shape before the season begins. We learned many new things and that information will be critical when the racing starts.”
Race promoter H20 Racing has announced a provisional eight-race 2013 calendar, with the teams venturing to the Brazilian capital of Brasilia for the first time for the opening race on June 2nd.
From there, the calendar takes crews to Kiev (July 27th), Kazan (August 30th), Liuzhou (October 4th), Qatar (November 23rd), Abu Dhabi (November 29th) and Sharjah (December 13th).
A second Chinese race has yet to be finalised in October
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