Great Britain SailGP Team - no more 'go big or go home'
The British team developed something of a reputation for going all-out in Season 2, with both high drama and top results. Along the way, they set the SailGP speed record of 58.9mph. A big crash in St Tropez, a capsize in Cadiz, and a fearsome collision with Team Japan in Sydney were memorable for all the wrong reasons. Twice they were docked season points and consequently missed a place in the grand finale.
Can a more consistent approach pay this Season? It certainly seemed so at the Season 3 opener in Bermuda, where they placed a solid second overall in a largely incident free event.
Speaking at the time, Driver and team CEO Sir Ben Ainslie said: “There’s a long season ahead and we wanted to take a more conservative approach after some of the challenges we had last season. This event is a first step in the right direction.
“The final race was di cult for us as we had a bad start. We had an approach that we wanted to come in a little bit late, gybe on the foil and then go over the line. Unfortunately, we messed up the gybe and killed too much and couldn’t get to the line. After that start we had to get loose to give us a chance of moving back up the places. We were able to split and separate and move back past Canada and towards Australia.
“Australia, however, sailed a fantastic race and it was always going to be di cult to move up on them. It was clear we weren’t going to get past Australia unless they made a horrendous error. At that point we decided to start to protect second place and stay in front of Canada. With 11 events throughout the season, this competition rewards consistency. I don’t like losing but we use that as motivation and learn from it and it was important we took home the second place.”