New sponsor for Sami Seliö while Maverick Racing confirms the French duo
Monday, January 22: The game of musical chairs continues in the UIM F1H2O World Championship. Shortly after Team Sweden became Team Bình Ðịnh-Vietnam, Team Abu Dhabi has announced that Alberto Comparato will join the team and Sami Seliö has announced a new title sponsor.
Young Italian Alberto Comparato will replace three-time World Champion Shaun Torrente as the second driver for the 2024 UIM F1H2O World Championship season.
The team operating out of the Abu Dhabi Marine Sports Club announced last Monday that Thani Al-Qamzi will lead the line-up with Rashed Al-Qemzi signed up as the reserve driver and the signing of the talented young Italian comes just a few weeks before the new season gets underway in Indonesia.
Comparato, 25, made his F1H2O debut in 2019 and followed his father Fabio into the top echelon of world powerboat circuit racing. After winning the 2018 UIM F2 World Championship to add to World, European and National titles in the UIM F4 discipline, he finished 10th in the championship at his first attempt and has since finished 14th, eighth and 11th- collecting one pole position in Italy (2021) and one podium finish in Sharjah (2022) along the way.
Two-time UIM F1H2O World Champion Sami Seliö has also confirmed that he will manage and drive for the Red Devil-SMC F1 Team in 2024, the Red Devil energy drink sponsor returning to the fold to support the Finn and his team-mate Fe4rdinand Zandbergen.
Meanwhile, Maverick Racing has confirmed that the French duo of Alexandre Bourgeot and Cédric Deguisne will continue to race the two Moore boats under the management of Jean Vital Deguisne. Béranger Robart, 41, will be the team’s third driver. He has experience of UIM F2 and F4 racing and the 24H of Rouen and had been set to compete for the team in Saudi Arabia back in 2019 before the race was cancelled because of inclement weather conditions.
Mâcon-based Deguisne will use the 2024 season to try and build upon his best finishing position of the 11th in the Drivers’ Championship that he achieved in 2016, 2021 and 2022. Bourgeot was classified in 12th in 2021.
The opening round of the 2024 UIM F1H2O World Championship takes place on spectacular Lake Toba on February 23rd-25th.
The natural wonder is an immense volcanic lake occupying the caldera of a super volcano that was formed by a gigantic climate-changing eruption around 70,000 years ago. Toba Caldera is one of 20 geoparks in Indonesia and was recognised in 2020 as one of the UNESCO Global Geoparks.
