Spain stunned fans and SailGP heavyweights Australia and New Zealand by winning the Season 4 Championship in San Francisco in an action-packed weekend of racing. From Spanish driver Diego Botin to SailGP CEO Russell Coutts, we round up some of the best quotes from the event.
“Sometimes you prefer to stay home. It hurts a lot, we didn’t finish the job and that’s really painful for everybody on board. I don’t think the overall ranking will show what we have done this season, but I’m proud of what the team has achieved.”
Quentin Delapierre on France’s season-ending crash with ROCKWOOL DEN
“Obviously we knew Phil would try and luff us because we’re equal points in the season championship but we didn’t quite expect him to put us on the rocks and hit the mark. I know he’s crazy, but I didn’t know he was that crazy so that’s why we got upset, because it got past the point of being fair racing.”
Nicolai Sehested on Canada luffing ROCKWOOL DEN in Fleet Race 2
“He believed in a very young team with no experience in this type of racing and we’ve gone through very hard moments,” he said. “He was the only one telling us ‘guys, you will get there' and (…) without him we could not have done what we have done today.”
Spain driver Diego Botin pays tribute to SailGP CEO Russell Coutts
“It’s likely new teams will be looking to poach experienced athletes from other teams, which I think is the obvious thing to do. If the rumors are true, those discussions are already underway and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some of our most established crews move around next season.”
SailGP CEO Russell Coutts on the beginning of transfer season
“It’s a bit of an end of an era for me this weekend. I’ve been pretty much at every event since the beginning. I’ve got nothing really lined up for next season, so I’ve made the decision to buy a cruising boat with my family and go cruising for a year. When you’re staring down the barrel of not having a drive next season, it’s tough.”
Nathan Outteridge on leaving SailGP
“Historically this is the venue with the most crashes, there’s a high chance of capsizes. If I was a top four team I would be a little bit nervous about pushing the boat too hard out there because you never know what’s going to happen.”
Canada driver Phil Robertson on San Francisco
*"Our stops in the USA this season, [we’ve been] pretty low on the leaderboard and that’s frustrating. Hopefully next season we can put on a better show for our home fans and we can’t wait until we do. But we can’t wait to get to Dubai - it’s crazy to think we won’t be on these boats for a few months, but we’ll go back to the drawing board and hopefully come out strong in Dubai.”*
United States CEO and strategist Mike Buckley looks ahead to the 2024/2025 Season
“It’s all pretty raw right now, I’m going through the highs and lows of it all but I can only imagine it’s going to make us hungrier. We could have done a better job and we’ve got to identify the weaknesses we have and we’ve got to improve.”
Australia driver Tom Slingsby on coming second in Season 4