The British America's Cup team has come together with Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science, a division of Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, to form INEOS Britannia; Sir Ben Ainslie continues as Team Principal, James Allison is the new technical lead and Martin Fischer leads the design concept
Monday 4 October 2021 15:10, UK
INEOS Britannia, the British America's Cup team and Challenger for Record for AC37, have formed a partnership with Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science in a bid to win the America's Cup.
The partnership between the British America's Cup team and the division of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team will bring together the best of the worlds of high-performance marine and automotive engineering.
The America's Cup is the oldest international trophy in sport; it predates the modern Olympic Games by 45 years and a Britain team has never won it.
For the 37th America's Cup campaign, Sir Ben Ainslie will once again lead INEOS Britannia on and off the water as the Team Principal and skipper.
In doing so, Ainslie becomes the first British Challenger to compete for three consecutive America's Cup campaigns since Sir Thomas Lipton's challenges in the early 20th century.
"The America's Cup is the ultimate team sport and to win, we have to assemble a world-class team," Ainslie said during INEOS Britannia's announcement programme.
"Every team member from design, build, support and sailing, is reliant on one another to get the best possible performance from the boat."
INEOS Britannia are the Challenger of Record for the 37th America's Cup and right now, they are working closely with Team New Zealand to develop the Protocol for the contest. This is due to be announced on November 17.
The partnership with Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science is designed to provide the British team with the best possible chance of delivering on that Protocol and producing a boat that will challenge, and ultimately defeat, the defender.
The fact that INEOS Britannia are developing the Protocol alongside Team New Zealand is also a step up from their previous America's Cup campaign, when Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli were the Challenger of Record.
"We've got a great team from two campaigns now," Ainslie added. "We're merging that with the team at Mercedes F1 - that's the key to getting the resource that we need.
Our approach will be rigorous, fusing together the talent and creativity of Formula 1 and the America's Cup. Collaboration will be key.
"Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science bring a legacy of design to the table. They are proven winners, it's in their DNA, it's in their culture."
Toto Wolff, the CEO and Team Principal of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, shared an insight to the why he believes his world-leading F1 team are so successful.
"The most important thing is to stay humble and be able to have a mindset of being able to criticise yourself," he said, openly.
"When you listen to one of our debriefs on a Monday morning after a race that we've been lucky enough to win, it doesn't sound like a team that has won. We're always sceptical about our own achievement.
"We're always suffering, in a way, from imposter syndrome. So, thinking that other people in the team must be really good at their jobs because we won, and I don't know what my contribution was. That goes all throughout the organisation - everyone feels that.
"I think that keeps us grounded. Every year we don't see ourselves as the one to beat, but instead, [we see ourselves] with this challenger mentality. We set expectations in the right way and we feel zero sense of entitlement."
A man who knows the culture that Wolff describes well is James Allison, who now takes on the role of Chief Technical Officer of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and INEOS Britannia.
"It's been exciting so far," he said about his initial AC37 experience. "It was interesting that Toto used the word 'humble' first off, as to what has been important here in Brackley.
"When people talk about the America's Cup being like F1 on water, most people think about hydrodynamics, aerodynamics and technology. Actually, the most striking comparison for me, is that it's difficult.
"The way in which it's worked okay for us in F1, is having the humility to admit that it's difficult and knowing that your competitors will eat you up if for one moment you forget that it's difficult. This challenge - the America's Cup - is proper difficult!!
"It's really exciting that there's a team of experienced America's Cup engineers, who are absolutely at the heart of what we're doing, working with Mercedes engineers to create something pretty special."
Leading the design concept for INEOS Britannia's AC75 boat will be the naval designer, Martin Fischer. Most recently, Fischer was a key part of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli's design team for two America's Cup campaigns.
Dave Endean, who was Project Director for the 36th America's Cup campaign, moves into the role of Chief Operating Officier and Giles Scott is the first member of the sailing team to re-sign, following his gold medal in the Finn Class in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
"The America's Cup has been 170 years pain for us in Britain," Sir Jim Ratcliffe, INEOS Chairman and Founder, said.
"We've had fantastic sailors in this country, but we've never had the boat that could win. We believe that assembling this unique collection of elite sports teams will give us a stronger chance of achieving what has never been done before.
"There are many synergies across our sporting family and what Mercedes F1's engineering and organisational expertise can add to our America's Cup challenge is one of the strongest examples of that."
