Thursday, January 30: Great Britain’s Ben Jelf took part in his third season in the UIM F1H2O World Championship in 2024 and the F1 Atlantic Team driver achieved his goal of finishing in the top 10 in the Drivers’ Championship.
After taking a couple of P3 finishes in Sprint races, the Maidstone racer finished ninth in last year’s Drivers’ Championship. He has now set his target on a top six finish this season and wants to be regularly challenging the title contenders at the front of the field.
“Last season was absolutely amazing for us as a team,” said Jelf. “We started off the year thinking our goal was to finish the year in the top 10 in the Drivers’ Championship and to get ourselves consistently racing in the top 10. Indonesia was a great race for us, as we qualified in our highest position and got P3 in the Sprint race. Vietnam was a bit of a setback, as our best engine broke during qualifying and we struggled for pace in the main race.
“Sardinia was a good race for us. We initially had trouble with the set-up for qualifying and the Sprint race but I then had a career-best finish in sixth in the race. Of course, Shanghai was tough for everyone, and that didn’t go my way, and Zhengzhou was a good race for us but we lacked the speed, so we couldn’t qualify any better.
“Then, for the final race in Sharjah, we had nothing to lose. I achieved a career-best qualifying and made it into Q3, which was a great reward for the team before we had a P3 again in the Sprint race. Unfortunately, the Grand Prix didn’t go our way but I could not have asked for a better season for the F1 Atlantic Team.”
With an even more determined focus for 2025, Jelf and his Portuguese team-mate Duarte Benavente will also be looking to see the F1 Atlantic Team improve on eighth place in the UIM F1H2O Teams’ Championship.
Jelf set out his target for the new season: “As we move into 2025, we are busy preparing things and thinking of improvements we can make to the boat and the set-up. We are talking with propeller makers about courses where we lost out and we are working closely with our engine tuner to help us squeeze more power and get the best performance we can.
“Our biggest goal for 2025 is to try and finish in the top six in the Drivers’ Championship and to try to be mixing it with the front-runners more often. My family and friends have been so supportive and I would not have a spot in F1H2O without Duarte (Benavente).”
