Pressure builds for F1 World Championship opener

by Philippe Stiernon on 19 Apr 2007 The U.I.M. F1 World Championship tour gets set to open up in less than a month on the weekend of the 12th and 13th of May at the Grand Prix of Portugal in the picturesque city of Portimao and some of the drivers are starting to really feel the pressure of winning their first grand prix event.

Numbers say a lot, but let’s be fair, not all are conclusive as a pair of drivers will be feeling 'the heat' more than others as racers from10 different countries will converge on the Algarve Coast and the Arade River at the start of the 26th year of the championship.

Who’s under the microscope this season? Let’s start with Sami Selio, the lead driver of the F1 Team Energy squad, who has been talked about as a future World Championship since his 'Rookie-of-the-Year' season of 1998. Despite two 'lost' years trying to help develop the OMC V-6 engine, the Helsinki, Finland driver has accumulated 11 podiums and 21 top 5 finishes and runner-up in the championship back in 2005. However, Sami is still looking at the 0 for 62 statistic that shows him with no victories in his 10 seasons of racing.

Sami, has great talents. He is very savvy when it comes to marketing his passion and runs a truly professional team adding a new teammate in Russian pilot Stanislav Kourtsenovsky, but the question still remains, what will it take for him to finally win? Sure, he’s played with victory before. He has 6 career runner-up positions including 3 in 2005. He almost won the final round of the 2004 campaign at the Grand Prix of Sharjah before his boat let him down and now he’s ready to change his luck. The question is, can he?

The other driver feeling the heat is local Portuguese driver Durate Benavente who like Selio has not picked up a victory since joining the circuit in 1999 and has gone 0 for 61. The diminutive 36 year-old driver has come close, with a career best 2nd place back in 2003 along with a pair of 3rd places. However, he is now looking in the rear view mirror of having not been on the podium in the last three years. He’ll want to reverse that trend in a hurry getting ready to race at his home Grand Prix, a race he has done well in the past, including a well earned 3rd qualifying position at last years event.

The Atlantic Team driver has support from his father Mario and other able mechanics as he is excited about his new Dragon race boat set-up with this years new U.I.M. regulations regarding 'crash box' technology expected to make a safer environment for the driver’s cockpit.

Slumps in racing are a natural progression of a driver’s career. Take for example the current World Champion Scott Gillman of the Emirates Team who went 30 races without a victory during the 2001 and 2002 seasons before breaking out into a flurry that has seen him win two titles in the last 3 seasons. Even 9-time World Champion Guido Cappellini of the Tamoil Team went 10 races in a row without victory back in 2003 and into 2004. Racing isn’t easy and streaks come and go.

So, with many different story lines developing at the opening round of the 2007 U.I.M. F1 World Championship and with many drivers hoping in their new quest for the world title, these two drivers Selio and Benavente will be in particular hoping to take that first step, winning a race, then chasing their dream of becoming World Champion.

An interesting twist to all of this scenario is which driver had the pole position at the Grand Prix of Portugal last year? Yep, Sami did. Let’s see if he can repeat the feat and take it one step further, a win, with Portugal native son Benavente fighting him all the way to the flag. Wouldn’t that be fun to see. Stay tuned.

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