Germany driver Erik Heil has reflected on the team’s second event in Los Angeles, claiming the location’s ‘marginal’ conditions ‘couldn’t have been tougher’ for the new team.
Despite being heralded for hosting the thermal acceleration zone of Hurricane Gulch, the F50 fleet had to contend with light wind conditions for the second event in a row with the largest 29m wing used on the second day of racing.
Speaking after racing, Heil said the team was ‘mentally exhausted’ after fighting the F50 fleet on the Port of Los Angeles. “The conditions were marginal and I think those are the conditions where you need the most experience in the boat, so for us it was pretty tough,” he said.
The Germans finished with a 9-8-9-10-5 race record and incurred a painful four-point event penalty and two season point penalty after colliding with Switzerland on the start line of the fourth fleet race. Without this penalty however, the Germans would have beaten Switzerland in fleet racing.
Despite securing their best finish yet in the final fleet race of the event, Heil said the team was ‘not happy with the results’ and would be looking into the fleet’s racing data ahead of Saint-Tropez. This process, he said, would include studying the team’s individual strengths.
“The best starters are the Canadians more or less so for the starts we will have a closer look at the Canadians and the communication they do, but for the mode, it’s maybe more the Aussies,” he said.
The SailGP fleet will next meet in Saint-Tropez for the France Sail Grand Prix on September 9-10. Broadcast information can be found HERE, while tickets can be purchased HERE. All broadcast partners according to territory can be found HERE.
