Stefan Hagin is getting a second shot at the F1H2O World Championship, with China CTIC Team handing the 25-year-old German a seat for the Grand Prix of Kyrgyzstan after his performances last season caught the team's eye. He will partner Brent Dillard at the event, taking over from Peter Morin in the process.
Hagin's F1H2O debut came at the Grand Prix of Jeddah, where he brought his single-seat hydroplane home in third place during the Sprint Race, opening his World Championship points account on the very first attempt. The Feature Race was a tougher afternoon, ending in a DNF, but the speed and composure he had already shown were more than enough to demonstrate that he belonged in this company.
That composure has been built over close to two decades of powerboat racing. The clearest statement of his development came in 2022, when Hagin won the F2 World Championship title, proving he could perform at full throttle on open water circuits where speeds climb well beyond 200 kilometres per hour.
Putting the departure of Morin in context is straightforward enough. The Frenchman has been a consistent presence in the China CTIC Team since 2017, recording seven podiums across his time with the outfit and finishing third in the Championship as recently as 2023. Those are not the numbers of a driver who has faded. Racing teams, however, make their decisions on where they believe the best path forward lies, and Hagin's emergence has evidently changed that thinking.
Dillard arrives at Kyrgyzstan with current race mileage already in his legs, having competed for the team at Cagliari earlier in 2026. With both drivers carrying live momentum into the event, China CTIC Team appears to be assembling its lineup with genuine intent rather than simply completing a roster. Whether the pairing translates to results will begin to become clear at Kyrgyzstan, scheduled for late July and early August, where Hagin will be hoping to build on the promise of that Sprint Race podium over a full race weekend.
The team has signalled that further driver announcements are on the way once the Kyrgyzstan round is complete, suggesting the roster remains fluid. In a championship where the competitive margins between boats are as fine as they are in F1H2O, finding strong drivers and placing them well at the right moment can carry considerable weight in any serious title campaign.
