Great Britain will be looking to tone down the racecourse drama and ‘set the record straight’ after a ‘tricky’ second season, SailGP’s podcast has been told.
Speaking on the second episode of the Deep Dive podcast, SailGP’s international broadcast commentators Stevie Morrison and David ‘Freddie’ Carr said the performance of the British team throughout Season 2 had been a ‘rollercoaster’.
“It was all go,” he said. “They were either winning events, capsizing or crashing - there was not a dull moment.”
He pointed to the fact the British team was named Team of the Season by SailGP fans, despite ranking fifth overall, but suggested they would be looking to ‘lose this mantle’ in favour of ‘steadying the ship’.
Morrison agreed, pointing to a litany of ‘incidents’ throughout the season which marred their racing potential.
“They had a big crash in St Tropez, they had the capsize in Cadiz, then suddenly we got to Sydney and it was basically boarding tactics - they took the bow off the Japanese boat,” he said, describing it as a ‘shocking incident to watch’.
As punishment for these incidents, the British team was twice docked season points and consequently missed out on a place in the Grand Final.
“They didn’t make it into that Grand Final and they didn’t deserve to be there,” Morrison said. “That’s the simple fact because mistakes at this level of sport are just not acceptable.”
Morrison argued that British Driver Ben Ainslie had ended up in ‘a few too many conversations with the jury’ and was ‘ultimately too involved’.
He pointed to Australia Driver Tom Slingsby who, despite portraying an image of an ‘aggressive’ racer, ‘does a really good job of avoiding the trouble and sailing around the course pretty clean’.
“In this tight racing, it’s keeping out of trouble,” Morrison said. “I think that’s something Ben’s going to have to go away and look at.”
Despite this, both Morrison and Carr remain optimistic about the British team’s chances in Season 3, which kicks off on May 14-15, describing them as ‘masters of their own destiny’.
Morrison added: “I think the British team has gone away and are coming back to Season 3 fired up to set the record straight.”
The Deep Dive podcast is available on all major podcast platforms and will feature new episodes ahead of each event of SailGP Season 3.
