I caught up with Sam Coleman of Team Brady ahead of the UIM E1 World Championship’s visit to Lake Como this weekend. The Pembrokeshire pilot won back-to-back E1 World Championships in 2024 and 2025 alongside Finnish co-pilot Emma Kimiläinen, and opened the 2026 season with second place in Jeddah, where he also clocked the fastest qualifying time on Friday.
Your social media feed shows you spending spare time on two wheels or training for a triathlon. Of F4, offshore and E1, which makes the biggest physical demands on a pilot?
All the categories have their own distinct challenges. I’ve not raced too much circuit other than the brief stint in F4 in 2018. I’d be keen to try F2, or F1 of course, to see how they compare, because even in F4 I remember being impressed with the G forces you’re able to generate while cornering, in comparison to offshore where there’s often a lot more sliding and a different kind of fitness and motor skill set required. Offshore is the toughest on the body, feeling similar to the beating you get riding motocross. It’s a crazy resilience you require to be on it for long races in rough, hot and humid conditions in Florida in July, and I enjoyed that endurance challenge. E1 is more of an assault on the senses. Physically it’s less demanding, for example the steering is fly by wire so you’re not fighting it like other categories, but there’s a need to be hyper focused for a shorter period. Being able to process all the information from the team regarding strategy and other boats, combined with the heat in the cockpit, is intense. Often feels like racing in a sauna. It’s mentally very challenging, and the combination of heat and hyperfocus can drain you in some of our hotter race locations if you’re not prepared for it, and they’re mostly always hot.
A podium at the last Grand Prix. What were the key takeaways from Jeddah?
One of the key takeaways is that it’s going to be another competitive year where any team has the capability to be on the podium and win races. There were some tough battles for each position in the field and we were happy to start the season with second. Fastest qualifier on the Friday was a bonus too.
You had pole in Jeddah but finished second. Has pole position become less decisive, or is getting the start run right still everything?
The starts are as crucial as ever, more so because with the six-boat races there’s less chance to find clean water through good strategy and to make up for a poor start. Pole position is still the favoured lane, but with six boats there’s a higher risk of being squeezed onto the turn buoy, and a compromised line through turn one gives an advantage to boats in the outer lanes. It’s still up to the pole boat to get there first and control the corner. It’s something we didn’t execute in Jeddah, where we had some stability issues and the boat would stall on the long start run before the corner. Look out for some carnage in the first corner this year as we’re all arriving there at the same time with the aim of being first out the other side.
Last year Italy was Round Four of the UIM E1 World Championship. Were you surprised it had taken until then to take a victory?
It took us a while to tick off a win last year, which was a little bit frustrating, not so much that we hadn’t won a race yet but that we hadn’t converted our speed into results in the earlier rounds. I remember being asked if it was a win drought for Team Brady at the time, but we had identified the issues that led to a slow start to the season. We knew the speed was there and there was no doubt in the team that the win was coming. Lago Maggiore was great. It was possibly one of our best weekends in terms of controlling events from start to finish. I’m proud of our team and the achievements that have put us in a position where three races without a win can be considered a drought.
Lago Maggiore provided some challenging conditions. Is it the toughest course on the calendar?
Lago Maggiore was a tough course due to its compact nature and fast water conditions. The higher speeds on flat water mean more of a knife edge of performance, and the time penalty for a stall is higher. Lake Como has similar challenges being on a lake, but there is far more boat traffic on Como creating wakes, and there’s a microclimate due to its proximity to the mountains so the weather is unpredictable too. We don’t really know until we get there, but the conditions in 2024 were good. The course was challenging to overtake on. We have a slightly different layout in front of the beautiful Villa d’Este this year, so let’s see what challenges it throws up.
Have there been any modifications to the RaceBird since Jeddah?
One of the interesting changes from my side is that we can now further customise and fine tune the flight controls to pilot preference. Each click of the trim paddle moves the trim a fixed amount. Some pilots prefer a bigger change per click, meaning faster inputs but less ability to fine tune. Some prefer a smaller change per click, more ability to fine tune but the need to be busier with the controls. When you’re working with fine margins where a 0.1 degree change in rear foil angle makes a real difference in pitch and ride height, some extra freedom to tune these parameters to your driving style will be interesting to test.
Emma was awarded the PIF Pilot of the Race last year for the way she held off Lucas Ordóñez in the dramatic first final. How would you describe her as a competitor?
Emma will never back down from a challenge and has the ability to back it up too, in many disciplines. It doesn’t matter who she’s racing and in what. When the helmet’s on it’s pilot versus pilot. Gender doesn’t come into it.
Powerboat racing has needed a Drive to Survive-style programme for years. Should E1 go that route?
Absolutely. You can see this with many other sports where the human aspect and story have driven engagement and growth. Drive to Survive may have been the first to really showcase this, and you can understand why other sports have followed its format. It doesn’t always have to be dramatised bad-day-in-the-office content, although there is a place for that. As a racer and engineer it’s not what I’ve watched those shows for. I’m there for the little insights into how people and teams operate. There are athletes and characters throughout the sport that I’m sure would make a show of this style a good watch.
Finally, what snacks have you packed for Emma this weekend at Como?
Ha, she assures me she has her own snacks, but I’m happy to share mine with her and the team if it keeps the performance levels up.
If it happened in powerboat racing during the last forty years the chances are that Chris Davies was there either photographing it or writing about it.
During that time, he has travelled the globe covering both offshore and circuit racing for series promotors, race teams, PR companies, and a whole raft of publications.
