2017 F1 Powerboat World Championship

The biggest change prior to the 2017 season getting underway was Scott Gillman's takeover of the management of the Victory Team.[4] There had been doubt since the end of 2016 about the outfit's participation for the following season[9] until Gillman was unveiled as the new team manager a month prior to the first race of the year in Portugal. Shaun Torrente was retained and paired with Ahmed Al Hameli.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]

Consequently Trask was correctly revealed as an F1 Atlantic driver, replacing Christophe Larigot at Duarte Benavente's team,[6] while Stark rejoined fellow Swede Jonas Andersson's Team Sweden outfit, with which he had made his debut in the series back in 2012.[7]

Having run three boats at the final round of 2016, Team Abu Dhabi boss Guido Cappellini confirmed that all three of his drivers at the Sharjah race - Alex Carella, Thani Al Qamzi and Rashed Al Qamzi - would be retained in full time drives for 2017.[5] While at reigning champions CTIC China, Xiong Ziwei was replaced by Frenchman Peter Morin who had been the team's reserve driver the previous year. The change was effectively a straight swap, with Ziwei assuming the reserve driver position for 2017 alongside Nelson Morin.[3]

After entering the European races for the past two seasons, Cédric Deguisne's Maverick F1 team assumed a full-time entry for the 2017 season, and hired fellow Frenchman Amaury Jousseaume to make his series debut as the team's second driver. At their home race in Évian, the young team expanded with a third boat for debutant Beranger Robart, bringing the number of French drivers on the grid to five.[8]

Only boats with results eligible for points counting towards the teams' championship are shown here.

Pos Team Boat No. POR FRA CHN CHN ABU SHA Points 1 Team Abu Dhabi 5 DNS 6 2 6 7 3 131 6 4 1 4 1 3 1 2 Team Sweden 14 Ret 5 6 Ret 6 2 81 15 8 7 1 2 5 Ret 3 CTIC F1 Shenzen China 1 1 Ret 5 3 1 4 78 2 9 11 10 12 9 6 4 Victory Team 3 DNS 4 3 4 11 Ret 58 4 Ret 3 Ret 5 4 Ret 5 Mad-Croc BaBa Racing 11 2 2 Ret 14 DNS DNS 38 12 Ret Ret 8 9 8 Ret 6 Emirates Racing Team 50 Ret 8 DSQ Ret 2 8 25 51 DSQ Ret 13 7 Ret Ret 7 F1 Atlantic Team 9 7 Ret 12 13 10 7 24 10 3 9 Ret Ret 14 10 8 Blaze Performance 23 5 Ret 7 8 DNS 5 23 24 Ret 10 Ret 10 Ret Ret 9 Maverick F1 73 6 14 9 16 Ret Ret 7 74 Ret 13 Ret 15 Ret

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Did not enter (cell empty) Text formatting Meaning Bold Pole position Italics Fastest lap