SailGP’s Season 4 visit to Bermuda was packed with action, from the USA dramatically capsizing before racing and aggressive tactics from ROCKWOOL DEN to Australia bouncing back and Spain winning the event after making the Final on the thinnest of margins. We round up some of the quotes which captured the emotion and adrenaline of Season 4’s 10th event.
“We disagree with the amount of penalty points, we don’t think we deserved the most in SailGP history, and we don’t think it was reckless sailing. We're just going to move on and get a great position here.”
Tom Slingsby on bouncing back from Australia’s penalty in Christchurch.
“We have a group of investors waiting to join the team and go forward with us. It will depend on the other teams wanting to join and SailGP, we are putting our best foot forward in that regard.”
Spain driver Diego Botin on team ownership speculation.
“It will be interesting to see how Australia bounces back from the race mark crash when racing begins in Bermuda. It’s hard for any sports person to come out after a catastrophic event, immediately put it behind them and perform, no matter how mentally strong they might be. I think it will be incredible if they can immediately put this behind them and have a strong performance in Bermuda.”
Russell Coutts ahead of Bermuda’s racing action
“I’m really disappointed in myself. While operating the wing, I chose the wrong function on my control panel which caused the boat to flip and it was very scary. I’m very thankful that my crew mates are safe. I’m going to look into it, what went wrong and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I’m also very thankful of how supportive my team mates and my team have been with me around this situation.”
USA wing trimmer Victor Diaz de Leon reflects on the team’s dramatic pre-race capsize
“It felt like we were the Australia of old where we had great starts and were hard to catch - we’re stoked. We sailed really well, had picture-perfect conditions and were happy all day.”
Tom Slingsby reflects on Australia’s race day one performance.
*"At the last course marker we knew the Aussies weren’t going to beat us, we just wanted to make sure we didn’t give them any room to gain on us so we wanted to kill them early and kill them hard – there was a big gap so we could be quite harsh on them.”*
ROCKWOOL DEN driver Nicolai Sehested on aggressive tactics against Australia.
“It was tough to watch from the sidelines. It was a beautiful day out there. We love coming to Bermuda so it was a bummer for us not to be racing - we consider it a second home.”
United States strategist and CEO Mike Buckley on watching from the sidelines.
“It’s genuinely painful to be honest. We have been in the situation when the shoe is on the other foot and snuck in and it feels pretty good but copping it on the chin is a tough one.”
Canada driver Phil Robertson on narrowly missing the Final.
