Stefan Hagin gets a second crack at F1H2O after impressing in his debut season. The German powerboat racer will partner Brent Dillard for China CTIC Team at the Grand Prix of Kyrgyzstan next month, taking the seat vacated by Peter Morin.
Hagin made waves last year at the Grand Prix of Jeddah when he stepped into the cockpit for his maiden F1H2O World Championship appearance. In the Sprint Race, the 25-year-old delivered a statement performance, hauling his single-seat hydroplane onto the podium in third place and bagging his first World Championship points in the process. His follow-up effort in the Feature Race didn’t go to plan—a DNF would have stung—but that Sprint showing proved he had the racecraft to compete at the sport’s highest level.
The call-up makes sense on paper. Hagin has spent nearly two decades in competitive powerboat racing and earned genuine credentials along the way. His 2022 F2 World Championship title demonstrates he can handle a boat at full throttle on open water circuits, where speeds regularly exceed 200 kilometres per hour. That foundation matters when you’re piloting a machine through the kind of demanding courses the UIM throws at drivers.
For China CTIC Team, the decision to swap Morin out represents a tactical shift as the season rolls forward. The Frenchman has been a cornerstone for the outfit since 2017, collecting seven podiums across his tenure and finishing third in the Championship in 2023. That résumé isn’t lightweight, but racing teams pivot when they see potential. Dillard already has a 2026 appearance under his belt after competing in Cagliari, so pairing him with Hagin gives the team two drivers hitting their stride.
The Kyrgyzstan Grand Prix, scheduled for late July and early August, will be Hagin’s chance to build on that first-season impression. He’ll be aiming to translate the speed he showed in the Sprint format into consistency across both race days. For a German driver with genuine pedigree in the sport, stepping up from reserve status to a full race drive is the kind of opportunity that can define a season.
China CTIC Team flagged that more lineup announcements will follow once the Kyrgyzstan round concludes, suggesting this may not be the final word on their driver roster for 2026. In F1H2O, where margins between boats are razor-thin and driver performance counts for everything, having depth in your driver pool and knowing when to deploy it can be the difference between championship contention and also-ran status.
