2012 F1 Powerboat World Championship

The 2012 UIM F1 H2O World Championship was the 29th season of Formula 1 Powerboat racing. Whilst a provisional calendar consisted of a total of nine rounds, following cancellations, an amended programme of six races, beginning in Doha, Qatar on 10 March 2012, and ending in Sharjah, UAE on 7 December 2012 was published by the UIM. At the penultimate race of the year in Abu Dhabi, reigning champion Alex Carella successfully defended his 2011 drivers' title, the Italian becoming a double world champion for the Qatar Team.

The eight full-time teams from 2011 continued into 2012, with an additional ninth team, Caudwell Racing from South Africa, entered. Their entry was officially confirmed in June 2011, making history by introducing four-stroke engines into the series which had been dominated in recent times by the two-stroke Mercury engines. The revolutionary engine was based on an Infiniti road car engine and featured Cosworth pistons and conrods in its design.

With Russian driver Stanislav Kourtsenovsky moving to the CTIC China Team, the part-time Jetech Tools F1 Team from 2011 didn't participate in 2012. At the beginning of May, former German driver Fabian Kalsow announced his intention to re-enter the series with a team for the latter half of the 2012 season, with a longer-term view to an entry for 2013. This failed to materialise however, but despite that, two new teams lodged entries for the final two races of the year. Former champion Jonathan Jones' hull manufacturing firm Dragon entered with British driver Malcolm Goodman driving, and a second Emirati-based team, Skydive Dubai joined the series, with 2008 champion Jay Price, having last competed themselves in 2009.

Following the conclusion of the 2011 season, by far the biggest driver change for 2012 was the resignation of Jay Price from the Qatar Team. His replacement alongside newly crowned champion Alex Carella, was Shaun Torrente who had driven for the team alongside Price and Carella for the final two races of 2011. At the CTIC China Team, Pierre Lundin was replaced by Russian driver Stanislav Kourtsenovsky who had made two appearances during the 2011 season for the Jetech Tools F1 Team. F1 Atlantic Team signed Kuwaiti Youssef Al Rubayan for a full campaign in a third boat alongside the retained Tourre and Benavente whilst Filip Roms joined compatriot Sami Seliö at the Mad Croc team, replacing Davide Padovan. Ivan Brigada, having raced on one occasion for the Singha F1 Team in 2011, moved to the new Caudwell team for 2012 to partner South African Brett Stuart.

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