2026 UIM F2 European Championship: Driver Guide

Mathilda Wiberg made history at Vila Velha de Rodao in September 2025, becoming the first woman to win a Formula-class world championship in powerboat racing. Her season was one of the great F2 comebacks: two points from the opening round at Brindisi left her seemingly out of contention, before she surged back with a dominant 20-point haul in Klaipeda and 12 more in Peso da Regua.

She entered the finale at Vila Velha five points behind brother Hilmer. He retired on lap 25 with a technical failure; pole-sitter Peter Morin lost his engine to a blown fuse worth under one euro. Mathilda won by 1.968 seconds over Edgaras Riabko, finishing the season 15 points clear.

Smedjebacken municipality awarded her the prestationsmedalj achievement medal and she was named UIM Driver of the Year for 2025. She goes to Klaipeda in 2026 as defending champion, carrying #1.

Her title defence has opened more steadily than emphatically. Twenty points at Klaipeda dropped to seven at Brindisi, leaving her third overall on 27 points, five behind Riabko.

Owen Jelf has been racing powerboats since 1979 and in F2 since 1993, making him one of the longest-serving competitors in the championship’s history. The 1986 F4 World Champion also raced in F1H2O from 1994 to 1998. He returned to F2 in 1999 and has been a consistent front-runner ever since, finishing second in the world championship in 2004 and third in 2008.

He won the 2020 Grand Prix of Portugal I at Vila Velha de Rodao, beating Benavente by 2.128 seconds. His brother Colin has also raced in F2. He joins the 2026 season from Round 2 at Brindisi, racing a BaBa hull for his own team.

Jarno Vilmunen (known as “Jape”) began racing at age 12 in the SJ-15 junior class and dominated GT30 in Finland from 2014 to 2018 before progressing to F4. His 2023 F4 season was exceptional: he swept the World, European, Finnish and Nordic championships in the same year, the same four-title clean sweep Andre Solvang achieved in a different year. He and Solvang were direct rivals in F4.

He debuted in F2 in 2024, finishing third in his first Grand Prix race. In 2025 he finished 4th at the F2 European Championship in Kaunas, taking overall pole position and showing strong pace throughout before a DNR and a racing incident with Dainis Podzuks affected his final result.

He runs his own company, Vilmunen Powerboat Racing, registered in 2021, and operates the Motor Mix Racing Team setup himself out of Nummela. He is one of the most promising young talents on the 2026 F2 grid.

Tullio Abbate carries one of Italian powerboat racing’s best known names into Viverone. He is the son of the late Tullio Abbate, the boatbuilder who founded the family’s Lake Como shipyard and whose clients included Ayrton Senna and Gilles Villeneuve, and races alongside nephew Giacomo Sacchi in the wider F2 paddock.

His own results stand on their own merits. He is a UIM World Endurance champion and Class S2 winner at the 24 Heures Motonautiques de Rouen, and took pole position at the 2024 Grand Prix of Italy in Brindisi, a result the local press framed at the time as pinching top spot from his own nephew.

Bimba Sjöholm returns to the UIM F2 grid at Viverone after five years away. She comes from a family steeped in the sport, her father and brother both raced before her, and moved into F2 in 2012 after coming through S250, T400 and Formula 1000. In 2020 she became the first woman to set pole position in UIM F2 World Championship qualifying.

Her last full season was 2021, when she finished fifth in the World Championship and second in the Nordic Championship. She stepped away from racing after the birth of her son Chester, and a new house left no time to return in 2025 either. Partner Scott Curtis, an English racer, raced her number 11 Molgaard hull in the 2024 World Championship while she was away.

Dainis Podzuks has one of the most compelling backstories on the 2026 F2 grid. He raced from 2004, won the SN350 Latvian Championship, then stepped away from competition for approximately 15 years before returning in 2021 to pursue his long-held F2 ambition. He was invited back by fellow Latvian Nikita Lijcs for an F4 Latvian Championship round in Aluksne, finished on the podium, and never looked back.

At the 2025 F2 European Championship in Kaunas he qualified 5th and ran 3rd in Heat 1, before colliding with Jarno Vilmunen on the opening lap of Heat 2. His boat was severely damaged and he did not start again that weekend. He had his best F2 result at Telsiai, where he finished 2nd. His radio man is Ugis Gross, a former F2 European Champion with F1H2O experience alongside Guido Cappellini.

He runs his own boat service business, DP Boat Servis, in Jurmala, which supports his racing operation. On his approach to the sport: “Only stupid people are not afraid.”

Romain Nedelec is a French driver based in Alicante, Spain, who has raced F2 domestically in the UK at Stewartby in a Moore hull previously campaigned by Brent Dillard in the UIM F2 World Championship. He also races endurance, finishing third overall in the 2026 UIM S3 World Endurance Championship at Poses with Team Torpilleur Racing, alongside Pierre Lambert and Alexandre Jean.

Andre Solvang stepped up from a dominant F4 career to UIM F2 with Sharjah Team in 2025, running the Mercury Racing 250 APX four-stroke while most rivals stayed with the two-stroke Optimax. The Sharjah Marine hull, built by Claudio and the first F2 boat equipped with the HALO safety system, was designed around the heavier engine. He qualified third and finished fourth on his F2 debut at Brindisi, then scored points in Klaipeda. An overnight engine repair at Vila Velha – a broken mid-section part sourced from an Optimax spare – saw him start from the back and still finish in the points.

Away from racing, Solvang is a qualified ship’s officer, working on cruise ships carrying up to 2,300 passengers. His employer accommodates his race schedule. His father Morten is his main supporter and has been instrumental throughout his career.

He also raced in the UIM E1 World Championship at Lagos in 2025, standing in for Rusty Wyatt at Team AlUla (LeBron James’s E1 team). He qualified second in his group and finished third from fifth on the grid in his first race.

Nelson Morin is the younger brother of Peter Morin, and together they form the most successful powerboat endurance partnership in recent French racing history. They have raced together since the mid-2000s, winning the UIM S3 World Endurance Championship together multiple times including in 2026 at Poses in Normandy alongside Thomas Cleret, winning Race 1 and Race 3.

Nelson is the endurance specialist of the two, with eight S3 world titles and six Rouen 24-hour victories. He is also a three-time French F2 Sprint Champion. At Klaipeda they line up on opposite sides of the paddock for the first time, racing against each other in the world championship.

His team is listed as Touax Gulf Racing for 2026 F2, reflecting the endurance team branding he and Peter carry from their Poses campaign.

He is fifth in the 2026 F2 standings on 16 points after two rounds, scoring seven at Klaipeda and nine at Brindisi.

Edgaras Riabko is the most decorated active Lithuanian driver in UIM F2, a two-time European champion whose career stretches back to 1994. He goes to Klaipeda for 2026 with a new-look DAC in deep navy blue, unveiled at a ceremony outside the Lithuanian Government building in Vilnius on May 28, attended by Prime Minister Inga Ruginiené, the official patron of the Klaipeda round.

Vila Velha de Rodao has been his most consistent hunting ground: four consecutive podiums from 2020 to 2024, including victory in 2022. He finished third in the 2025 championship with 33 points, taking second in the finale behind Mathilda Wiberg. His propellers throughout his career have been made by Romualdas Kundrotas, the 91-year-old craftsman from Alytus regarded as Lithuania’s last racing propeller maker.

Off the water, Riabko organises the Klaipeda and Kaunas rounds of the UIM championship and runs a youth development programme. At Klaipeda in 2026, he races as the home favourite in front of his own crowd.

He leads the 2026 championship after two rounds. Twelve points at Klaipeda, 20 at Brindisi for the win, 32 points total, two clear of Peter Morin.

Nils Slakteris is the most intriguing newcomer on the 2026 F2 grid. The reigning F4 World Champion steps up having never raced an F2 boat, following the established UIM ladder from GT15 through F4 to the senior class. He clinched his F4 title at Viverone in September 2025 in one of the most dramatic championship finales of the year, sweeping from seventh on the grid to pass title rival Jean Baptiste-Thomas of France when the Frenchman lost pace in choppy conditions.

He arrives at Klaipeda for his F2 debut at a circuit he knows well from his F4 seasons, which should ease the transition. He carries the same race number, #51, into the senior class and races for RIGA Powerboat Racing, the team he has been with throughout his career.

He told PBN after his title win: “At the start I didn’t think I’d be standing here as World Champion. Starting in seventh, I just had to wait and see if there was an opportunity. When Baptiste slowed, I thought, ‘it’s now or never’, and I made the move.”

Oleg Bocca is entered for the 2026 F2 world championship but has yet to make his debut, carrying one of Italian powerboat racing’s most storied names. His father Fabrizio Bocca won the 1992 F1 World Championship after overcoming a three-point deficit, taking the title in Singapore. Fabrizio currently serves as Sport Circuit Commission President at the Federazione Italiana Motonautica and founded the Fabrizio Bocca Powerboat Race Academy in 2016.

Oleg started racing inflatable boats at 13, won multiple Formula Junior Elite races by 16 and claimed the Italian GT30 Championship in 2021 and 2023. He races a 2002 DAC hull for Rainbow Team, the same constructor his father used during his championship-winning career. The boat is one year older than Oleg himself. He told Italian sports newspaper La Stampa the team pursues a low-budget strategy centred on reliability over outright speed.

His long-term ambition is to reach F1H2O as a driver and return Rainbow Team to the championship his father won in 1992. The 2026 season marks his tenth year in powerboat racing.

Hilmer Wiberg delivered one of the most remarkable F2 debuts in recent memory in 2025. Entering the Vila Velha finale leading the world championship, he retired on lap 25 with a rod through the engine block, handing his sister Mathilda the title. He finished the season with 39 points and the UIM Silver Medal, 15 points behind Mathilda.

His championship record across GT15, GT30 and Offshore is extraordinary for his age: three world titles, multiple European and Nordic crowns, and 14 medals before stepping into F2. He had no practice in an F2 boat before his debut in Kaunas, where he finished third in the European Championship.

He told PBN after the season finale: “I am really proud of my sister, she deserves the win. It was really a great season and I hope to make the next one even better.” Father Andreas manages both siblings, with a strict no team orders policy.

He is fourth in the 2026 standings on 21 points, taking 12 at Brindisi after nine at Klaipeda, closing on his sister ahead of him in the table.

Peter Morin is one of the most versatile and accomplished powerboat racers of his generation. In 2026 he races F2 with Team RPM, having stepped back from F1H2O this season. He also won the 2026 UIM S3 World Endurance title at Poses in May alongside brother Nelson and Thomas Cleret.

His 2025 F2 season ended with one of the sport’s cruellest moments. Starting from pole at Vila Velha with the championship mathematically alive, his engine failed due to a blown fuse worth under one euro. Mathilda Wiberg won the title; Morin was classified DNF and finished fourth in the standings with 32 points.

Team RPM principal Alessandro Canzi confirmed his return without hesitation: “He is part of the RPM family and so there was never any doubt about his driving seat.”

Two rounds into 2026 he sits second in the championship on 30 points, 15 at Klaipeda and 15 at Brindisi, two behind Riabko.