2015 F1 Powerboat World Championship

The 2015 UIM F1 H2O World Championship was the 32nd season of Formula 1 Powerboat racing. The season consisted of six races, beginning in Doha, Qatar on 14 March 2015, and ending in Sharjah, UAE on 18 December 2015.

Philippe Chiappe, driving for the CTIC China Team, entered the season as defending world champion having won his first title, and the first for a Frenchman, the previous year. Chiappe successfully defended his title, securing enough points at the penultimate round in Abu Dhabi and thus became the series' fourth back-to-back championship winner. In addition, the championship witnessed its first ever female race winner, when Marit Strømøy won the final round at Sharjah, with the occasion attracting international media coverage.

The 2015 season would see the biggest team and driver changes for some time, as sporting and political decisions upset the balance of recent years. By far the most significant development was the Qatar Team's withdrawal from the sport following a merger between the Qatar Sailing Federation and Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF); the latter of the two bodies having previously run the Qatar F1H2O operation. The team ran a single boat at the opening race on home waters in Doha for Shaun Torrente, with former teammate and triple world champion Alex Carella having already left for bitter rivals Team Abu Dhabi.

Carella had been tempted to switch teams after manoeuvres behind the scenes at Team Abu Dhabi resulted in Guido Cappellini replacing Scott Gillman as the team's technical director. But whilst Torrente won the opening race of the year for the Qatar Team, by June the squad had been shut down, and Torrente instead joined forces with the widely respected offshore outfit Victory Team, who now turned their attention to the inshore scene. At the third race of the year in Porto, Torrente was joined by reigning Class 1 and X-Cat champion Nadir Bin Hendi, making his debut in the series. Initially, both Victory pilots used customer BaBa hulls, but the team were unsatisfied with their performance and looked to source a supply of Moore boats which were being campaigned successfully by the CTIC China team. Moore refused to supply Victory however, preferring to keep exclusivity with their fellow French-based China team. Denied, Victory went and built their own hulls which were ready by the Abu Dhabi GP, where the new self-titled Victory hulls made their debut. It was noted however that the new boats bore somewhat of a resemblance to their Moore counterparts.

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