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Ĭonsequently Trask was correctly revealed as an F1 Atlantic driver, replacing Christophe Larigot at Duarte Benavente's team, while Stark rejoined fellow Swede Jonas Andersson's Team Sweden outfit, with which he had made his debut in the series back in 2012. However it later transpired that Trask's hiring had been misreported and that Gillman was in fact moving Marit Strømøy and Mike Szymura from the EMIC Racing Team, which would close for 2017, into his Emirates Racing outfit. Gillman's existing Emirates Racing team had initially appeared to sign Australian Grant Trask who had impressed in his two outings at the end of 2016, and was slated to be replacing Swedish driver Erik Stark. Shaun Torrente was retained and paired with Ahmed Al Hameli. There had been doubt since the end of 2016 about the outfit's participation for the following season until Gillman was unveiled as the new team manager a month prior to the first race of the year in Portugal. The biggest change prior to the 2017 season getting underway was Scott Gillman's takeover of the management of the Victory Team.
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However, Chiappe's streak as champion was ended by Italy's Alex Carella for the Team Abu Dhabi, who secured his fourth drivers' championship. Philippe Chiappe, driving for the CTIC F1 Shenzhen China Team, enters the season as defending triple world champion having in 2016 become only the third driver in the sport's history to win three back-to-back drivers' championships. An initial seven race calendar was released at the end of January, with the championship scheduled to begin in Portimão, Portugal on 23 April and conclude in Sharjah, UAE on 15 December. The 2017 UIM F1 H 2O World Championship was the 34th season of Formula 1 Powerboat racing.
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