“The safety of the drivers is our priority”, guarantees Nicolo di San Germano, the president of Formula 1 in Motonáutica, whose inaugural race of the season takes place this weekend in Portimão. But the strong wind that is felt forced to cancel the free practice, which was supposed to take place this afternoon and tomorrow morning.
The weather forecast points to a calming of the wind from 16:00 tomorrow, Saturday, so the race organizer and its commissioner, the Portuguese Luís Ribeiro, are hopeful that the free practice and qualifications can still take place this Saturday.
Otherwise, training, qualifications and tests will have to be pills on Sunday, April 23, the day when the weather forecast for the calming of the wind is most likely to be met. Last year, the same happened at the French GP, where everything had to be postponed to Sunday, due to the weather.
This will be, in any case, a super intense journey, testing the nerves of these drivers of thirteen nationalities and nine teams, which, according to the Portuguese Duarte Benavente (F1 Atlantic Team), the only national driver on this circuit, reached «200 at 220 kilometers per hour' in the Arade estuary.
American Shaun Torrente (Victory Team) told Portuguese journalists this morning that "with these conditions, we won't have time to make adjustments and improvements." His teammate Ahmed Al Hameli, from the United Arab Emirates, said: "all this adds pressure to both the work of the riders and the mechanics".
The flying Finn, Sami Selio (Mad Croc Baba Racing), who is already a veteran both in the world championship and in the race in Portimão, who he has known since the Formula 1 Motonáutica circus started coming to the Algarve in 1999, was perentório: «I love this track, I love this race, but I've never seen weather conditions like these, it's never happened before».
Sami, who last year, when the race returned to Portimão, managed to pole position and finished the race in 2nd place, due to "mechanical problems", he hopes to repeat the pole…and win. "I never won a race in Portugal," he lamented.
Frenchman Phillipe Chiappe, from the powerful Chinese CTCI F1 Shenzhen China Team, world champion in 2016 and winner of the Portimo race last year, has no problem saying: «the best race of the entire championship is the one in Portimão».
But the truth is that, this time, the wind is so strong that the teams' tents have to be closed, “so that everything doesn't fly”. Even if they wanted to, “it wouldn't even be possible to put the boats in the water, with the cranes, because they would rock a lot in the air”, as a member of the organization's team explained.
Always in a good mood, Nicolo di San Germano asked Isilda Gomes, the mayor of Portimão, who accompanied the beginning of the backstage visit, to intercede "to calm the wind." «Maybe lighting some candles», joked Francisco Neto, owner of Interpass, the company that sponsors the team of Portuguese Duarte Benavente and which was, last year, one of the main workers in the return of F1 H2O to Portimão.
The wind is, in fact, one of the main enemies of these pilots of boats with aerodynamic shapes, which barely touch the water, seeming to fly softly. The wind, which has billowed the surface of the waters of the Arade estuary, can cause accidents, so we have to wait for conditions to change.
The F1 boats are carbon fiber catamarans, with V6 outboard engines, with 2500 cubic centimeters, delivering a power of 430 to 440 horsepower. The engines all have the same characteristics, although their tuning changes. That's one of the main differences between the teams. That…and the pilots, of course.
In a race dominated by men, the Norwegian Marit Stromoy, the only female pilot in F1 H2O, ends up always being one of the attractions for the public. The Norwegian, who is also a successful singer in her country and has been racing in powerboats for 28 years, won her first race in 2015 and is looking forward to this year's championship.
“This year we have a good engine. The level between the drivers is very close, there are few seconds apart from each other, so with a lot of work, we can reach the top», he told reporters.
In other words: even if today has been affected by strong wind and tomorrow, at best, only from 16 pm onwards, training and qualifications are expected to start, everything indicates that Sunday will be the day of all emotions .
Bearing in mind that watching the race is free, along the banks of the Arade estuary, in the riverside area of Portimão and in the fishing port opposite, the race should be accompanied live by thousands of people. And tomorrow morning, starting at 11:00 am, there will be visits to the paddock, intended for the public.
But the opening race of the ever-spectacular F1 H2O World Cup will also be broadcast on television to 70 countries, more than a third of which live. Nicolo di San Germano jokes: "For three years now, a Chinese team has won the Championship and that's lucky, because we have millions of Chinese watching us on television."
This major media exposure at world level leads the Chamber, businessmen gathered at the Associação Turismo de Portimão and even Turismo de Portugal to bet on this Grand Prix of Portimão as a vehicle for promoting the city, the region and the country at an international level.
Mayor Isilda Gomes revealed that this year she will bring the circus F1 H2O costs a total of 490 thousand euros, of which 340 thousand are provided by Turismo de Portugal and the remaining 150 thousand by the Chamber, through a program contract with the Associação Turismo de Portimão.
But "the return" for the economy of the municipality and the Algarve region, as well as in terms of international image, is "much superior to the investment", guaranteed the Mayor.
"The 150 thousand euros that we invested are a fully justifiable amount given the impact that the competition has on the municipality, the Algarve and the country," he added.
Furthermore, according to Nicolo di San Germano, the projection of the cities that will host a competition of this F1 World Cup is not only made at each race, but throughout the year, while the championship travels to the four corners of the world.
In 2018, said Isilda Gomes, Turismo de Portugal has already said that it will not support the Portimão event with such a high amount. Therefore, the mayor announced that "we are going to finish this test and start working on the next one right away", to "find sponsorship to keep the race going here, being certain that the Chamber will not go beyond 150 thousand euros». In other words, entrepreneurs, namely those in the hotel and catering industry who receive dividends from the F1 circus in Portimão, will have to assume their share of sponsorship.
President of F1 H20 remembers Nuno Mergulhão
Nicolo di San Germano recalled: “in 1984, in the year of the first circuit of this sport around the world, at the Corte Ingles Grand Prix in Seville, a young Portuguese man – we were all young, then – came to talk to me and said: “I come from Portimão, my name is Nuno Mergulhão, and sooner or later I want this event in my city”. I had already heard about the Algarve, but I didn't even know where Portimão was. A few years later, at the race in Budapest, Nuno Mergulhão came to me and said: “I'm the mayor of Portimão and I have a project for the our city, whose image we want to promote internationally. Now we are ready to receive the proof”.
And the first Grand Prix here in Portimão was in 1999».
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues|Sul Informação
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