The driving ambition of France driver Quentin Delapierre remains to reach San Francisco’s winner-takes-all Grand Final after the team just missed out on a place in Season 3’s showdown.
Delapierre raised eyebrows last season when he said early on that he was gunning for the three-boat Grand Final. However, a slew of impressive performances from France saw the team get within touching distance of the Grand Final when San Francisco’s fleet racing began.
But aggressive match racing tactics deployed by Emirates GBR saw Ben Ainslie’s squad narrowly beat the French, taking the last spot in the three-boat shootout.
Despite falling at the final hurdle in Season 3, Delapierre has set the same ambition for this season, adding ‘you achieve ambitions with a step-by-step mindset - this doesn’t change.’
He admitted the start to Season 4 ‘hasn’t been a dream one’, but emphasized his commitment to ‘improving and climbing back up the leaderboard.’
“We compete in SailGP to reach the Grand Final, because once you are in the Grand Final, you know you could win the championship in one last race,” he said.
The key to this is ‘taking it step by step, race by race, grand prix by grand prix,’ while trusting in the ‘strategy and collaboration inside the team’.
He pointed specifically to the latest transfer news, that will see former Swiss flight controller Jason Saunders and former France flight controller Francois Morvan swap teams.
Saunders will race with France for the first time in Saint-Tropez, with limited time to practice the new configuration beforehand. “I’m confident that Jason will adapt himself well and contribute to that,” he said.
Read the full interview on The Dock.
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