The blow didn’t go very far last night. For only two points, the F 50 (15m flying catamaran) piloted by Quentin Delapierre finished fourth in season 3 of the Sail GP championship, leaving the Australians, New Zealanders and Britons to compete in the grand final, in a San Francisco Bay (USA) bathed in sunshine. The jackpot of one million dollars, the prize promised to the winner of this final round of the season, was won by the Australians of Tom Slingsby.
In California, the French, even less experienced than their multi-golden opponents in the World Championships or the Olympic Games, had mortgaged their chances of keeping their 3rd place from the first day and the first three regattas completely missed. “It was a very stimulating situation, but we lacked ease on board. Faced with teams of this level, we have to be at the maximum of our performance”, noted then Quentin Delapierre, who had finished twice in sixth position and once eighth.
Last night, the French largely raised their heads, winning the 4th round with panache, however insufficient to make up for the delay taken the day before. “I’m super happy with the reaction, it was important not to end up in the hole in the rankings of this Grand Prix, underlines Quentin Delapierre. Winning this round, in battle, with the Top Guns, is a pretty awesome feeling. We didn’t go far during the next round, I felt it was good, we had two opportunities, the maneuvers were not however well carried out. If we want to play in another category next season, we will have to go up a notch in certain aspects. »
On the magnificent body of water in San Francisco, between the Golden Gate and Alcatraz Island, the French had a fright and passed on Saturday very close to capsizing, victims of a near-refusal of Canadian starboard.
Launched at high speed, the cars sometimes brush against each other and trigger the screams of the crowd at each maneuver, massed all along the Marina, with a breathtaking view of the battle on the water. This weekend in San Francisco, they were thousands, beer or ice cream in their hands, to be passionate about a circuit created 3 years ago by Russel Coutts, legend of New Zealand sailing, and the American billionaire Larry Ellison , founder of Oracle. Their idea is to restore the attractiveness of onshore racing thanks to a circuit, largely financed by the organization, which, like a Formula 1 season, stages on all continents.
“We can no longer afford to sail so little”
Lagging behind in the first two seasons, the French are catching up. “We played the season finale until the end, we are super satisfied. But as a competitor, I’m not happy to finish 4th, it annoys me”, summarizes Quentin Delapierre, at the head of the Team for a year. “We had the possibility, even if we were a little below the top three. It has to mark the team so that next season (Editor’s note: which starts in Chicago the least next), we can be even more precise about what we must do. In particular, there are strategic decisions to be made, we can no longer afford to sail so little. We have to manage to federate partners so that we can navigate more. We fight against opponents (Editor’s note: who own their Team, because they are financially independent of the organizers thanks to private sponsors) who sail 200 days a year, when the French team is 45 days away. We never complained about it, we hung on but now we have to tell ourselves that we have to take it up a notch if we want to win Sail GP one day. »
