Team Abu Dhabi looks to create a big splash in London

Torrente, Al Qamzi had a sound start to the season in Portugal

Team Abu Dhabi’s Shaun Torrente and Thani Al Qamzi head to England this weekend to take part in the new Grand Prix of London, a new addition to the UIM F1 H2O World Championship calendar.

Race officials have devised a course on the River Thames in the centre of East London and the Emirati duo will be hoping to build upon the tremendous start to a season that saw Torrente and Thani Al Qamzi claim first and second overall for the team out of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC) in last month’s Grand Prix of Portugal.

The race at Royal Victoria Dock is being organised by BRM Europe UK with permission from Idea Marketing SA and under the auspices of the UIM and the Royal Yachting Association. It will take place on a 1.72km, three-pin elongated rectangular-type course where Torrente is convinced boats will top speeds of 230km/h on the two 850m straights.

“I’m really excited about this weekend. I’m in Italy for final preparations. I have a brand new boat in Italy that is identical to my race boat and we are going to test some new propellers for the course. It’s going to be amazing to be in London, with all the history and the culture and the large fan base, but the racecourse is going to be very different for us drivers. It’s more like I used to race in the United States with long straights and onepin turns. I’ve had a lot of experience with that,” said the Championship leader Torrente.

“That is the positive, but the negative is it’s a bit less fun because the course is less technical. The hard thing is getting the boats that are no longer designed to go on such long straights to handle at high speeds on the long straights. The plan was to work on that over two or three days before heading to London. We are happy where we are and I, personally, want to go for another win,” added Torrent.