Sail: Team France SailGP – Give it your all for the Season 3 Final

With 20 days to go until the SailGP Season 3 Grand Final, the French are improving their preparation to arrive in San Francisco with all cards in hand.

If the Australians have already secured their qualification for the final triathlon that will crown the grand victor of the tournament, the remaining two spots must be played between the New Zealanders, the French and the English. See you May 6th and 7th in the legendary San Francisco Bay for the finale in Apocalypse!

The Season 2 finale was particularly tight and rich in twists and turns on one of the most amazing sea courses on the planet. San Francisco, The Bay, will host the SailGP Grand Final again this year, and its optimal conditions promise an epic outcome. Nine F50s – identical super-powered floats – are poised to play with the limits and will surely exceed 100 km/h in the race.

Teams from Australia, New Zealand, France, Great Britain, Denmark, Canada, the USA, Switzerland and Spain, the most experienced and brawling, will compete between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. Five fleet races have been decided upon, after which the overall championship classification will be updated. The tension will be at its peak! Everything will then be possible for the top three teams to qualify for the final race on Sunday: less than 16 minutes of racing under high tension and high speed to decide the podium of the third season of SailGP … and the grand winner of a million dollars!

Les Bleus came close to achieving their pre-season goal

The impressive progress of Quentin Delapierre’s French team, throughout Season 3 of SailGP, allows them to reach San Francisco in a good position to reach the final Grand Final in three. This was the goal that the France SailGP team set itself at the start of the season. The competition was again tight in the ten events won by Australians Tom Slingsby (3 wins), New Zealander Peter Burling (3 wins), French (2 wins), American Jimmy Spithell (1 victory) and Canadians by Phil Robertson (1 victory). So in a one-design circle where only sailors make the difference, what’s the French’s secret recipe? Maybe he’s open-minded, fresh-minded and definitely a lot of pragmatism. “Between each Grand Prix, we spend half our time analyzing the data and watching videos of the previous events, each on our own,” explains Quentin Delapierre.

Everyone finds points of interest which we all discuss together to make up for the lack of navigation. “Besides the work and commitment of every member of the French team without whom nothing would have been possible, there is this new impetus given by the arrival of the young and talented Morbihanni. It is a great challenge that he was able to meet by agreeing to take the helm of the F50 only a year and a half ago! The arrival of his partner Kevin helped Bibonnet in wing-trimming is very much about group cohesion and sharing experiences, information and feelings.” The rest of the time we try to sail as much as possible on other media and the whole team works with Thomas Sammut for mental preparation, to help us perform better individually and collectively. »

Perfect preparation for the Grand Final

But this time it’s different, the stakes on the eve of the Grand Final are much higher. In preparation for taking on Ben Ainslie and Peter Burling, “It’s fantastic, they’re two exceptional sailors,” Quentin DeLapierre comments. Ben Ainslie is the greatest of all time, and little Peter Burling is hot on his trail. I just have the desire and desire to play what we have to play. It’s a special moment. In a career. You don’t play these monsters every day, so you have to appreciate and give your all. Anyway, that’s how I deal with it.”

After three weeks of exchanges and meetings, the France SailGP team put together a strategy for the Grand Final: “Everyone’s signed at the bottom of the page, so that’s great. We’re preparing with the cell. We did a whole bunch of insights to ascertain our strengths and to decide how we want to navigate San Francisco. These forces The Frenchwoman has worked hard to get her and they intend to use her.” I’m sure we will all be in San Francisco with the joy of playing something as great as the SailGP Final. And to top it all off with a lot of energy because I don’t feel like a sailor is nervous or stuck in what’s at stake. We have prepared well, we want to play and have fun. And I’m convinced we have a lot of stuff in the toolbox that we’re going to be able to use. What is certain is that Quentin Delapierre, Mile Frascari, Kevin Bibonnet, François Morvan, Timothée Labau, Mathieu Van Damme and Olivier Hurledant will do their best to maintain their place in the top three, and qualify for the final. Then, “we stay in the present moment. Not once in a season have we placed ourselves in the top three but of course if we realize it once in the final anything is possible!”

Two podiums will be held in San Francisco

While everyone is eagerly awaiting the Grand Final in San Francisco to see who will be the Grand Champion of Season 3, the SailGP podium will also be decided in early May. The Impact League, which tracks positive actions taken by SailGP teams to reduce overall carbon emissions and help accelerate integration into sailing, will see its champions rewarded. The New Zealanders, the winners in 2022, are again at the top, closely followed by the Danes. The Canadians complete the provisional podium and we find the English in fourth place, just ahead of the French.

France SAILGP Team // Sailing Team

Reef Swap Season 3 Final | San Francisco

Quentin Delapier / Driver

Maëlle Frascari / Strategist

François Morvan / Flight Controller

Kevin Peponnet / Wing Trimmer

Olivier Herledan / Mill

Mathieu Van Damme / Mill

Timothy Labaw / Mill

Mubadala’s final sail program for the third Mubadala season | San Francisco

– Sat May 6th i 11:30pm – 1am d+1 Paris time (2:30pm – 4pm local time) // 3 fleet races

– Sunday May 7 I 11:30 PM – 1 AM d+1 Paris time (2:30 PM – 4 PM local time) // 2 fleet races + Grand Final with 3 boats

To continue on Canal +!