Shaun Torrente will retire from UIM F1H2O at the end of the 2026 season, the American confirmed on Tuesday, April 28. The four-time world champion cited a desire to devote himself to his business ventures in Florida, closing one of the sport’s most decorated careers on his own terms.
Torrente, known throughout the paddock as “the Alien” for his pace on the water, became equal second in the all-time list of F1H2O champions when he claimed title number four in Sharjah in December 2025 – equalling the four championships also won by Scott Gillman and Alex Carella, and surpassed only by Guido Cappellini’s ten. He returns in 2026 with a straightforward target: a fifth title that would make him the outright second most decorated driver in the history of the sport.
Torrente said of the coming season:
The 2026 season will be my final lap of honour: one last time to battle with the best; one last time to wear Victory Team colours with pride; and one last time to soak in the incredible atmosphere that is F1H2O.
2018: The first, on a damaged engine
Torrente crossed the line third in the Grand Prix of Sharjah on December 15, 2018, behind teammate Erik Stark and Jonas Andersson, to win his first world championship. The twist: Team Abu Dhabi had damaged Torrente’s engine in qualifying and decided, just one hour before the race, not to change it.
Stark, who had won three races from pole that year, dominated again. Torrente tracked him home in third, finishing four points clear of Stark in the final standings after a season in which Team Abu Dhabi’s drivers had won every race from pole. Thani Al-Qemzi, the third of the team’s championship contenders, retired on lap 18 with an electrical problem, leaving Torrente to manage the closing laps and bring the title in.
Torrente said afterwards:
I was fighting my mind trying to keep it all together. I knew I was in a good spot. I was just trying to get it home. I couldn’t take another day like that!
2019: Countback, chaos, and a trim failure on the last lap
The 2019 title was the most improbable of the four. Torrente arrived at the Sharjah finale five points behind Jonas Andersson, carrying a damaged engine that had been hurt in qualifying and kept quiet in the paddock. An hour before the race, the team decided against changing it and rolled the dice.
Andersson produced a lap-perfect drive, leading for 44 of the 45 laps with Torrente tracking him in third behind Philippe Chiappe. Halfway round the final lap, Chiappe slowed with a trim issue. Torrente moved up to second, followed Andersson across the line, and the two finished the season tied on 79 points apiece. The championship was decided on countback, the first time in the series’ 36-year history, with Torrente winning on the strength of a better second-place tally.
Torrente was candid about the fortune involved:
Today we had that bit of luck that we all need sometimes.
Andersson’s summary was terse. “I was fast all race and in the end to win but lose out when you have the same points is very hard to take,” the Swede said. It was the first chapter of a rivalry that would define both careers across the decade.
2022: Watching from the wreckage
When the third championship arrived in Sharjah on December 18, 2022, it came in the most brutal fashion of the four. Torrente’s Team Abu Dhabi boat was destroyed in a lap-ten collision with Bartek Marszalek; teammate Thani Al-Qemzi, himself a title contender, hit the wreckage and ended his own season on the same corner.
Torrente walked away from the crash but his fate now rested entirely on Andersson retiring. Andersson, leading after 18 laps, obliged with mechanical trouble after 28. Philippe Chiappe, who had announced his retirement from top-flight competition before the weekend, took his tenth and final career victory by 2.73 seconds from Marszalek, with Alberto Comparato third.
Standing in the pits, Torrente was more shaken than celebratory:
Honestly, I was five feet from being in the hospital. Five feet away from not standing here talking to you, not World Champion, nothing. And now it’s okay and I am the World Champion!
Torrente finished the championship on 69 points, three ahead of Andersson, who had led the race with ten laps to go.
2025: 780 days from a stretcher to title number four
The crash at the end of the 2023 season was bad enough that Torrente left the scene on a stretcher, uncertain whether he would race again. He missed the entire 2024 season. When he confirmed his return with Victory Team for 2025, his message to the team was unambiguous: not if, but when.
In Sharjah for the fourth title-deciding finale, Torrente’s engine failed on lap 14 of the 40-lap race. He watched the rest from the shoreline. Andersson, needing first or second to take the title, led but faded with power issues and finished sixth. Twenty-three-year-old Estonian Stefan Arand took his maiden Grand Prix victory for the home team, ahead of Grant Trask and Rusty Wyatt.
Torrente finished the season on 99 points, nine clear of Andersson. Back in the paddock after watching the championship decided without him on the water:
380 days ago, when we signed to come back, we said we would win the World Championship. Not if, but when. 780 days ago, I left this place on a stretcher and I didn’t want my career to end like that. I have worked for two years to get back to being here. It means such a lot. You never stop fighting.
One more season
Four titles, each won differently. The first on a damaged engine managed across the closing laps. The second on the strength of a second-place tally that nobody knew mattered until the final half-lap. The third from the pit lane, watching a rival retire. The fourth from the shoreline, on 99 points, two years after leaving Sharjah on a stretcher.
Torrente returns for 2026 with Victory Team and a clear goal. Five world championships would move him clear of Gillman and Carella and into outright second place in the all-time list, behind only Cappellini’s ten. The final lap of honour begins in Cagliari.
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
