SailGP: Great Britain's SailGP team motivated for Saint-Tropez duel

Sir Ben Ainslie and his Great Britain team are second in the season standings (Image credit - Bob Martin for SailGP)

Sir Ben Ainslie says that Great Britain's SailGP team has "extra determination" to push their performance on, as SailGP arrives in Saint-Tropez for the fifth event of Season 2.

Ainslie returned to the British team for the previous event in Denmark, following time out to welcome his son Fox into the world and he immediately increased the team's intensity.

After qualifying for the three-team winner-takes-all final, the British outfit's chances to win it were scuppered by a contentious penalty decision from the race officials.

Having caught the Japanese boat, and with the Australian boat in their sights, the umpires awarded a penalty against Ainslie and his team for 'not giving room at the mark' moving from leg three to four.

At the time, Ainslie declared it as "ridiculous" and now, they're returning to the water with added motivation.

"The season is really heating up, with the level of competition up there with anything we have ever seen in the sport," he said to SailGP, ahead of the event starting.

"It was great to get back into the final podium race in Aarhus, things obviously didn't quite go our way but that has given us extra determination to push our performance even harder in Saint-Tropez.

"I actually thought I was reasonably restrained [at the time], given what was going on and what was at stake. It kind of ended our chances of winning the race and all three teams were in with a chance of winning, so it was a shame.

"But look, it's done. Five minutes later, you move on. Our team isn't sitting here wounded that we had a call go against us and that it's going to ruin our event in Denmark or the Championship.

"That is part and parcel of racing at this level; you take it on the chin and move on."

It’s a bit of a moving point in the season with Saint-Tropez and then straight onto Cadiz, before a bit of a break. So it’s really important for all the teams to try and get some solid results with the goal of being in that top three for the final event.

Sir Ben Ainslie

Alongside their added motivation, the British SailGP team will have Hannah Mills - the world's most successful female Olympic sailor - with them for the events in Saint-Tropez and Cadiz, Spain.

After previously trialling with the team in the Season 2 opener in Bermuda, Mills will be training as an understudy driver with Ainslie.

"I'm incredibly excited to be joining the team again," she said. "I've been watching all the events, cheering them on, so I'm really buzzing to get stuck in.

"My priority here will be to start learning more detail about the different roles, more on the wing trimming from Goobs [Iain Jensen], the flight control from Parko [Luke Parkinson] and obviously helming from Ben.

"I'll be asking lots of questions from the team, the more I can learn, the more I can talk to other female athletes coming through and inspire them to take up these opportunities."

Mills joins the team in a strong position, with the British outfit currently in second place in the overall Championship standings - just two points behind Tom Slingsby's Australian team.

Slingsby and his unit, who are the defending champions, lead the way having won back-to-back events in the UK and Denmark.

"We know this sort of high won't last forever," he said, openly. "We will get beaten soon, but the team has a really good energy right now and we are sailing confidently.

"I'm really proud as driver and CEO of the team that we are sailing so well."

One unique feature of SailGP, is that the data from every team's F50 is available to all of their competitors, and Slingsby shared how the Australian team look to use that in particular conditions.

Tom Slingsby and his Australian outfit are leading the way so far this season (Image credit - Ian Roman for SailGP)

"For sure Nathan [Outteridge] is licking his lips at the light-air forecast and is very pleased with that, but anyone can win - that is clear to see.

"In the Australia team, we consider Nathan and the Japan team to be the best light-air sailing team here, and we've had quite a few light-air venues and that is a weakness of ours in the past.

"We are always looking at the data from Nathan's boat, so we copy them, and then we try to elaborate and improve on their techniques."

In total the eight SailGP teams will compete in five fleet races and a final podium race over the course of the weekend in France. Every moment will be live on Sky Sports, with coverage of day one starting at 12.30pm on Saturday on Sky Sports Arena.

The event winner will be decided late in the day on Sunday, as three boats will take to the water for a winner-takes-all event final.