36th America's Cup: INEOS TEAM UK keeping emotions level ahead of PRADA Cup Final
INEOS TEAM UK and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli begin the winner-takes-all PRADA Cup final series on Saturday, live on Sky Sports from 3am; the series will decide which team becomes the challenger to Emirates Team New Zealand in the America's Cup match.
By Emma Thurston
Last Updated: 12/02/21 12:02pm
The 36th America's Cup campaign has already been filled with highs and lows for INEOS TEAM UK and Sir Ben Ainslie explains how the British team have managed the emotions of it all so far.
INEOS TEAM UK are bidding to become the first British team to ever win the oldest trophy in world sport, and since they first took to the water competitively in December, it's been a fairly intense ride.
Most recently, during the PRADA Cup Round Robins, they sail superbly out in the Hauraki Gulf and Waitemata Harbour. They remained unbeaten and progressed directly into the PRADA Cup Final, the series which starts on Saturday live on Sky Sports.
However, prior to Christmas, INEOS TEAM UK experienced the flip side of the coin during the warm-up races.
During the PRADA America's Cup World Series Auckland and the PRADA Christmas Race, they were off the pace, battling with technical problems and after months of man hours and development, race boat BRITANNIA looked clunky out on the water.
For Ainslie, team principal and skipper, his role on the water as skipper is as instrumental as his leadership off it. An America's Cup campaign isn't won by just one or two people, it's won by an enormous team who spend years of their lives working on the project.
There are 11 crew members on board BRITANNIA during a race, but the wider team amounts to over 100, and prior to heading out to New Zealand, Ainslie shared more with Sky Sports about what he asks for from team members.
"On and off the water, they have to have the right attitude and the right personality," he said about the whole team.
"I expect real honesty and no real egos… there's a term that we use which perhaps you can't put in print (!) and we try and work off that.
PRADA Cup Final - Opening Weekend - Live on Sky Sports
| Saturday, February 13 | Races One and Two | Live on Sky Sports Main Event and Mix | Coverage at 3am with a repeat at 8am |
| Sunday, February 14 | Races Three and Four | Live on Sky Sports Main Event and Mix | Coverage at 3am with a repeat at 8am |
"Quite early on, we were fortunate that we did some training with the military and those teams are out there in life and death scenarios. The one thing that they will tell you, is that they have that absolute honesty between them."
As the leader, it's Ainslie who ultimately sets the example and the tone, and already this campaign he has been very careful about keeping the trajectory similar, regardless of the situation.
The final race of the PRADA Cup Round Robins, which secured their direct route into the final, was an exceptional contest. INEOS TEAM UK and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli went at it hammer and tongs, Ainslie described it as one of the best races of his career, and after a dramatic finish, the British outfit won.
Directly after BRITANNIA crossed the line first, the on-board microphones picked up some whoops and hollers from the team, and then Ainslie's voice bringing them back into focus.
That was not because he wanted to wholly stifle their energy or diminish their achievement, instead it was about focusing on the end result and taking this enormous challenge one step at a time.
"We try really hard with the team, right from the outset of the campaign, to try and keep the emotions level particularly as you start getting into the racing," Ainslie said to wife Georgie in an exclusive interview for Sky Sports.
"We had some really tough times going through the Christmas race and holding everything together was the key at that point, through to winning all of the races in the round robins.
"So, if you're not careful then you end up in a bit of a roller-coaster ride of emotions. What ideally we need to try and do is flat line; if you win a few races that's great and that's where we want to be, if we lose a few then that's not great but we've just got to keep pushing and keep on trying to get better every day.
"Ultimately, we need to win the America's Cup and to do that we need to win the PRADA Cup, so that's how you've got to approach it step-by-step."
Ainslie is acutely aware of different personality types, however his focused mindset is why he is the most decorated Olympic sailor of all-time and why he's the man that any team would want leading their charge.
"You want to have individuals within the team, that's really important and you want them to show that passion but at the same time, until you actually achieve what you set out to achieve, you can't celebrate really.
"Okay, you can take enjoyment from winning a race, but that isn't the ultimate goal. Until we have achieved that [goal] you can't get carried away and we can't afford to drop our shoulders.
"Each day, we need to be working to be faster and stronger, if we're going to reach that ultimate goal."
This weekend the stakes raise again, the PRADA Cup Final is a winner-takes-all series, one challenger will go through and take on Emirates Team New Zealand in the America's Cup match and the other's campaign will end.
It's a first to seven victories series and the expectation is that races will be decided by individual moments and won by small margins.
"It's going to be fascinating to see how both teams line-up performance-wise, when we get out on the race course on Saturday," Ainslie added during the final press day.
"I'm really excited about it because I think that it could be some of the best racing that we're going to see in the America's Cup. That's what you want; you want to be racing at a tough level, putting yourself out there and
our team are ready and excited for it."
Watch every moment of the America's Cup challenge, live on Sky Sports. Coverage continues with the PRADA Cup final at 3am on Saturday, live on Sky Sports Mix, repeated again at 8am.
