Monday April 13 - Team Abu Dhabi will be fielding three boats for the 2026 World Championship, driven by a leading line-up of Jonas Andersson, Erik Stark, and Rashed Al Qemzi. This means the championship will see two teams expand to racing three boats for the season, with Emirati rivals Sharjah Team having also expanded their ranks for the season.

At the beginning of the year, Jonas Andersson made the bombshell announcement that he was moving from his Team Sweden to join Team Abu Dhabi for the forthcoming season. The Swede finished second in the Drivers’ World Championship last year, narrowly missing out on his fourth World Championship in the final Grand Prix of the season to Victory Team’s Shaun Torrente.

Andersson will be joining fellow Swede Erik Stark, who made the move to Team Abu Dhabi last year. Stark failed to hit the ground running in his first season with the Emirati team, finishing the year in a disappointing eighth place in the Driver’ World Championship, a far cry from his runner-up finishes in 2018 and 2023. He goes into the 2026 season hoping to achieve what his new teammate has on several occasions but has narrowly eluded him so far: a prized World Championship victory.

Racing alongside the Swedish duo will be Rashed Al Qemzi, who returns to the championship after missing last season. The Abu Dhabi native is a five-time UIM F2 World Champion, but has yet to replicate that winning form during his forays into the top of the sport. 

Fellow Emirati racer Mansoor Al Mansoori remains in the Team Abu Dhabi fold, though this year will be kept as a reserve to the three principal drivers.