The Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team finished the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix in eighth place and dropped to sixth in the Season 4 Championship leaderboard.
The dominating factors were a miniature stadium style racecourse, and lack of a decent breeze which meant no foiling . . . except in the earlier event replays for the on-screen viewers to reminded us of what we were missing.
SailGP has always played the crash, bang, wallop action card heavily in the build-up of the league but has now run two back-to-back events at venues without a chance of any signature action. But so pleased were they with the event, that it will be the venue for future Grand Finals, you have to wonder why?
For the British team, with Giles Scott taking over from Ben Ainslie it was a difficult debute, and Giles admitted he was “disappointed” with the result, but the Team would “take it on the chin and look towards the next event in Sydney”. As will we all.
After finishing all three races on Day 1 in seventh position, Emirates GBR had an improved performance on Day 2, finishing in fifth and then fourth in the two fleet races, so the signs were there.
Although they dropped two places overall, the points difference is only two points to third placed USA, so if Scott can get up to speed quickly there is still time to recover for the July Grand Final event with the recently increased US$2 million prizemoney.
Ben Ainslie, Emirates GBR CEO, was in Abu Dhabi for the racing, where he watched Scott’s debut from the coach’s booth with Emirates GBR Coach Rob Wilson.
The F50 League will next meet at the Sydney Grand Prix on 24 and 25 February, followed by Christchurch, New Zealand 23 and 24 March.
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