It was pretty much a foregone conclusion, but now it’s official.

Slidell resident and Qatar boat racer Jay Price is the Formula 1 World Champion. Price won a gold medal for capturing the Formula 1 title Dec. 12.

Going into the final two races, Price needed just five points to clinch the title. He did so with one race remaining in victorious fashion as he won in Abu Dhabi by 23.76 seconds.

Qatar boat racer and Slidell resident Jay Price, holding the checkered flag, celebrates with his team after clinching the Formula 1 championship in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 5 with one race to go.

“It felt great because Formula 1 is the top category for power boat racing,” Price said.

He added that he wanted to clinch the title early.

“I wanted it finished, I wanted it won and I wanted it over with,” Price said. “I qualified No. 1 in the pole position and I led from start-to-finish.”

Price said he was leading by half a lap when the yellow flag came out. That brought the boats closer and then he pulled away once the green came back out.

Boaters get points for where they finish. The winner of each race receives 20 points, second place gets 15 points and third place records 12. The top 10 participants are awarded points with 10th place getting one.

The eight-race season ran from April-December and Price finished with 105 points. Finland’s Sami Selio was second with 69 and Sweden’s Jonas Anderson was third with 62.

Unfortunately for Price, he didn’t finish the last race, which was held at Sharjah, because he hit a buoy and bent a propeller and gear case.

Price ended the year with three wins, three runner-ups and he did not finish two races.

For the last race, Price, who has his own used car business, was joined by several family members, including his father Juan, wife of 29 years Roberta, brother Joel and daughter Jamie, 28 and son Jayson, 25. His youngest son Jaymes was unable to attend due to work.

Roberta Price said she was happy for her husband.

“I was extremely proud of him,” she said. “I know he’s worked extremely hard for this.”

She added that it was nice being with the family.

“It was good everybody was there together. Everyone treated us nicely. We got to meet the officials and the other drivers,” Roberta Price said.

Joel Price also won two other titles, including the team championship and the slam trophy.

The team championship goes on at the same time as the individual competition and each squad has two boats. The slam is based on the fastest boat.

His team won the championship with 110 points over Abu Dhabi (87) and F1 Team Sweden (71).

He won the slam trophy with 99 points.

Sweden’s Jonas Anderson was second with 89. The only title Price didn’t win was the pole position points. Price finished sixth with 61 points and first place had 102.

Price said winning the three titles showed the hard work of his team.

For those two championships, Price won a trophy, which is kept by the team.