Strømøy: ‘We Have the Speed’ | XCAT Dubai and Sharjah Finales

Marit Strømøy arrives in the UAE for the most demanding fortnight of her 2025 season. The Norwegian faces back-to-back championship finales across two series, competing in the XCAT finale in Dubai from 12-14 December before heading to Sharjah for the F1H2O season closer on 19-21 December.

For Strømøy, these events mark a decade since her breakthrough victory at the 2015 Sharjah Grand Prix, when she became the first woman to win an F1H2O race. Yet she approaches the circuit without sentiment.

Sharjah is another race. Of course it means a lot to me being there because it was my first time on the podium in F1. I didn’t really before that appreciate the circuit. I didn’t like it. I didn’t feel I had the goals to run it. But yeah, it is special. But then again, it’s just another race and we have to prepare as another race.

CrossFit and Constant Travel

Her physical preparation centres on daily CrossFit sessions that serve dual purposes.

My mental and physical preparation is basically a lot in the gym. I’m doing CrossFit every day, and that keeps me kind of mentally and physically in shape. It’s something I do. It’s like my only routine. I work as a raceboat driver and a singer, and having a routine is difficult, but waking up every morning and going to the gym is kind of my mental and physical preparation.

The 2025 season tested that routine severely. Strømøy competed in 20 world championship rounds across three series: F1H2O, XCAT and E1.

Her E1 involvement with Team Brazil concludes this year, the team disbanding for 2026. Strømøy remains open to electric racing opportunities but acknowledges the toll of constant movement.

Although I love racing, I also love to have a normal life. So it’s difficult to do everything.

Four-Stroke Development Progress

Strømøy has piloted the Mercury Racing four-stroke 360 APX V8 since 2023, pioneering an alternative technical direction whilst rivals maintain traditional two-stroke power. Her Strømøy Racing teammate Bartek Marszałek perseveres with two-stroke engines, providing direct comparison.

Marszałek delivered third place at the Jeddah Grand Prix, demonstrating the team’s competitive potential. Strømøy finished eighth after Q1 elimination prevented her from reaching the three-session qualifying format.

The four-stroke programme shows promise on flat water but struggles when conditions deteriorate.

We found out during this year that we definitely have top speed and a good potential on flat water. We’ve been second, third quickest in nearly every free practice before it starts. But then when we come to the qualifying, I struggle to find good space to do a good lap. We have a problem between the boat and the engine. We have a lot of power. We can’t really get it to settle in rough or normal to rough conditions.

The team works constantly on balance refinements, taking steps forward and occasionally backward as they develop the package. A new hull and engine combination awaits 2026, though the Mercury V8 remains central to the programme.

The four-stroke engine faces potential XCAT adoption. Rumours suggest the 360 APX will appear in offshore racing, though Strømøy notes confirmation remains pending and the XCAT specification will differ from her F1H2O configuration.

It’s not exactly the same engine. I mean, it’s the same build-up, but small, small changes for sure. But I think it’s going to be very good. The engine is strong. It’s super strong. And I think with two of them on this boat, it’s going to be a good step.

XCAT Challenges

Strømøy’s XCAT experience brings different demands to single-seater F1H2O racing. The offshore boats carry both driver and throttleman, requiring coordination absent from circuit racing.

The biggest difference for me is that there’s two people in the boat. And you have to kind of work together as one unit. In XCAT, you have more time to debate or discuss what to do next. In F1, you have to react quicker.

The boat feels loose on the water despite its size, maintaining similar driving characteristics to her circuit racer. Navigation presents additional complexity, though the Dubai course layout minimises wrong-turn risks.

Here it’s also difficult to go wrong because you can more or less always see the next point. There is a lot of buoys out there, so it’s easy to get confused, but you don’t go wrong.

Women in Powerboat Racing

Mathilda Wiberg’s 2025 UIM Formula 2 World Championship victory represents meaningful progress for women in powerboat racing’s upper tiers. Strømøy congratulated the Swedish driver whilst acknowledging structural work remains incomplete.

I believe we will see her also in Formula One in the future. I think we need more like her. I think we need more of her, more people that doesn’t think gender and just do what they want to go and do it without putting too much thought into it. It’s like we did when I was very young. I mean, we didn’t think boy or girl. We just did whatever we like to do.

Offshore racing has historically attracted female competitors, particularly from Scandinavia. Strømøy attributes this partly to regional attitudes toward equality without claiming comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon.

Competitive Depth Increases

The 2025 F1H2O season produced intensified competition throughout the field rather than merely at the front. Strømøy notes aggressive racing now extends to positions outside the top five.

The battle between top 10 has never been so close. The way people are racing now is so much more aggressive than before, which is kind of surprising, because before it was very aggressive in top five, now it’s very aggressive in top 12.

Her Jeddah qualifying illustrated the compressed competition. Just 0.3 seconds separated fifth from 13th in Q1. Strømøy finished 13th in that session despite minimal time deficit.

Racing outside the championship battle between Shaun Torrente and Jonas Andersson provides strategic freedom. Strømøy can approach Sharjah without title-protection considerations.

My goal for this year has been to have a podium. It can look like we’re miles away from the podium, but we’re not really, because we have the speed. But we can’t, as up till now, we haven’t been able to put it together during a normal race condition.

Torrente leads Andersson by 14 points heading to Sharjah, with Alec Weckström third on 72 points. The compressed standings ensure the championship remains undecided until the final race.

Strømøy’s eighth-place finish at Jeddah kept her within striking distance of the leaders despite the Q1 setback. She notes the gaps to the front proved smaller than positions suggested.

We were not that far off from Shaun at the end of the race. So I mean, fine margins. So I mean, fine margins. Yes, it is.

The Norwegian’s F1H2O career has produced 103 race starts, one victory and five podium finishes. Her last podium came at Figueira da Foz in 2021. Breaking that drought with the four-stroke package would validate the technical gamble she and husband Andrea Colombo committed to developing.

Dubai’s offshore finale precedes Sharjah’s circuit racing by five days. The condensed schedule tests physical resilience and mental focus across two distinct disciplines.

Whether Strømøy achieves her podium goal or not, the fortnight represents her most significant opportunity of 2025. Ten years after making history in Sharjah, she returns seeking to prove pioneering technical development can compete with established methods.