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F1H2O
Shaun Torrente leads the championship standings on 72 points
and a win in Abu Dhabi will hand him the title if teammate Erik
Stark, who is 7 points adrift in second, finishes fifth or lower. To
keep his title hope alive, teammate Thani Al Qemzi has to win. In
the teams championship Abu Dhabi are well and truly in command
and sit in top spot on 126 points, 43 clear of CTIC F1 Shenzhen
China and are poised to lift a third teams championship in four
years.
In the inter-team head-to-head this season Torrente holds court
with three pole and race wins to Stark’s two, with Al Qemzi on the
podium either side of the winner three times, but neither of the
trio has won in Abu Dhabi and if the title race should go to the wire
in Sharjah with all three still in it, Al Qemzi might fancy his chances
having won there three times to Torrente’s one with Stark still to
get off the mark!
With the team on the cusp of a brace of titles the ‘Cappellini factor’
cannot be underestimated as he looks to steer his team to a
successive drivers title and a third teams championship in the four
years since he took over at the helm as team manager in 2015.
Arguably his hardest role as the season closed out has been the
management of three drivers from the same team bidding for the
title. “It’s not just managing three very good drivers it’s managing
three that are separated by just 18 points. It’s is not an easy task
because each driver has a clear motivation which is to win a first
world title,” he said. “Every time a driver goes out on the water I
remind him, and not just me, that what is important for the team is
not to make a mistake especially with a team member. Right now
there are no issues and everything is working out very well and I
hope it continues in this direction.
“They are free to race. It is difficult to have a preferred driver, why,
because Shaun is Shaun, Erik is Erik and Thani is Thani. For me to
win the title as a driver you cannot have any mistakes. One mistake
by whoever it is will cost him the championship and I always stress
this to all of them.” And when asked who he thought will win the
title he said ‘inshalla one of them!’
Mathematically the CTIC F1 Shenzhen China duo is still in it [the
title race] but in all reality their time is limited unless there is a
complete out of body capitulation by the trio at the top over the
next two races, but a championship podium slot is still a possibility.
Philippe Chiappe’s hopes of keeping any flickering title challenge
alive were all but extinguished in India after his first corner malaise
with Duarte Benavente, and in a season that has not been the
teams’ strongest he heads to Abu Dhabi to defend his Grand Prix
title.
Despite a solid start to the year with a podium for Chiappe in
Portugal and for both CTIC drivers in London with Chiappe at that
n° 5 DECEMBER | 2018
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