| But will the decision to split the championship winning partnership bring added pressure. "Our target is of course to successfully defend title and we have worked hard since the end of last season," said Victory’s team manager, Gianfranco Venturelli. "The decision to split Arif and Jean-Marc is because the goal is to try to have an all-Arab Championship winning team, with Jean-Marc bringing through and developing new team members. We are constantly developing the boats but are main goal is reliability. |
For sure without doubt last year reliability helped us to win title. But our task is tougher now – expectations are high in Dubai – they expect us to win. In my opinion there are three or four 4 boats that will be very strong – of course Qatar 96. Steve has shown before he can adapt to new drivers, and maybe this year we see the true level of the Sterling engine. But we have had a good build up to the season in terms of preparation. Yes we have new partnerships - but we are ready to race." |
