“It’s a game of experience, and knowing how to play the game,” said driver Botin who won Olympic gold at Paris 2024 in the men’s skiff class alongside SailGP teammate Florian Trittel. The pair have been balancing preparation for Cadiz with training for the 49er World Championships, which start in Cagliari, Italy, on 7 October.
“Many things can happen,” said Botin. “The fleet is super close and it’s very possible to slip up and have a bad event, even for the best teams. We have to be there making things hard for them.”
The Spaniards were the first team to break Australia’s threepeat of championship wins by claiming the overall title in season four, in the series that sees all nations compete in identical boats, and they’ll want to be in with a chance of doing it again.
The high-tech F50, which dramatically rises out of the water on foils and is populated by numerous Olympic sailors, race in iconic venues around the world in short, intense races, close to shore in dramatic spectator-friendly events.
And with the final two weekends of the dramatic fifth season reaching its conclusion, the human factor will play its part as the pressure ratchets up.
It’s all to play for now.