Australia driver Tom Slingsby has reflected on the Aussies’ first - and long-awaited - win of Season 4, describing it as ‘hugely important’ to the mentality of the team.
The win in Sydney - the 8th event of Season 4 - saw the Aussies bounce back from a calamitous start to beat ROCKWOOL DEN and closest rival New Zealand on home waters. Previously Australia had made it into every event Final, apart from Abu Dhabi, but failed to win a single one.
“You start to doubt yourself when you get into that many finals and you can’t win - you start to ask, are we good enough to win?” Slingsby said after racing.
The event win, he said, was all the more important for breaking the momentum of New Zealand’s consecutive victories in the Middle East. “I feel like it’s a real mark in the ground with New Zealand having two wins a row and we were up against it on our home turf and able to deliver like that,” he said. “To win at home in Australia - you couldn’t have written a better script for us.”
Looking ahead to next month’s event in Christchurch, New Zealand, Slingsby said he hoped ‘the pressure will be on’ New Zealand as the home run approach to San Francisco’s Grand Final begins.
“The points will be what the points will be, but for us changing the mindset and bringing the confidence back into the team is much more important than season points - I feel like we did that here,” he said. “If we’re sailing well, I know that we can win this thing.”
The F50 fleet will next meet at the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix | Christchurch on March 23-24.
