Spain driver Jordi Xammar has pushed back against the suggestion that flight controller Diego Botin should step into the driver role if Spain’s performance does not improve.
The team is currently sitting eighth in the overall leaderboard, just one point ahead of newcomer team Switzerland.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the ROCKWOOL Denmark Sail Grand Prix in Copenhagen, Xammar described Botin as a ‘very good sailor’ and said he felt ‘lucky and proud to have him on the team’.
However, he defended his position in the driver’s seat, arguing ‘it doesn’t matter if you’re Peter Burling or Nicolai Sehested or whoever you are, everyone needs time’.
“For us, it’s no different to need that time to get to the top,” he said.
He added that the team never expected ‘it to be easy’. “In SailGP we are racing the best sailors in the world in the F50 and there’s no shortcuts - the only shortcut is to work harder and that is what we’re doing.”
The team has been hampered in recent events by incidents on the water, including a pre-start collision with British at the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix in Plymouth last month. And the team's weekend in Copenhagen got off to a rocky start after the Spainish F50 sustained significant damage in training.
Despite these setbacks, Xammar said his main positive from the season so far has been ‘the team’. “All this time, we haven’t had one bad mood,” he said. “It’s not an easy moment, but if we pull together it will be very special, so I’m focusing on that.”
