SuperSport world champion Angelo Tedeschi has questioned whether double Scandinavian Grand Prix of the Sea winners, Team SW1 Capital, has the boat to repeat its heroic efforts of Gothenburg in Sicily this month.
The all-British team of Daniel Cramphorn and Kim Collins are the in-form duo in the Powerboat P1 World Championship after storming to victories in the Sprint and Endurance races in early August.
However, Tedeschi, who will team up with Aaron Ciantar aboard Seagull Chaudron, believes the rougher waters of Sicily in the final round of the 2009 season could cause problems for the Donzi of the Team SW1 Capital.
"They are strong. Perhaps the strongest boat in flat sea conditions because their boat has the best acceleration with its turbo-engines.
"However, our team is curious to see the boat on rougher sea conditions."
After a four-year absence from the island south of Italy, Team SW1 Capital pilot Daniel Cramphorn is looking forward to the event and believes the conditions could actually work in their favour.
"The truth is that the boat has always been set up for rough waters since day one. But we haven't seen any of those conditions so far.
"The big Chaudrons have an obvious size advantage but I am sure our Donzihull, Sterling power and Arneson Drives will be very effective too," he said.
Seagull Chaudron sit at the top of the Championship, 28 points clear of nearest rivals Baia Attolini.
Team SW1 Capital are fourth in the table with 533 points.
Meanwhile, former P1 world champion Hannes Bohinc has tipped SNAV OSG team as the favourites to take the Evolution class crown in Sicily.
Despite sitting an imposing 75 points behind current championship leaders Silverline, Bohinc has calculated that his team can still overhaul the British team to take the title but sounded a warning that they must keep an eye on teams behind them in the standings.
"After our results in Italy and Sweden we are probably the favourites - although we must watch out for Cigarette Smash Poker. If we finish both races in Sicily we will receive 50 reliability points and therefore have only 25 points to make up on the leaders in the two races.
"This means we will then have to finish just two places ahead of Silverline in the two remaining rounds, which, unless they find an extra 15mph from somewhere, would seem achievable."
"However, our primary aim is to finish both races and then secure enough race points to win the Grand Prix of the Sea."