Switzerland SailGP Team - Valuable learnings on Kiwi Waters
by Switzerland SailGP Team 19 Jan 00:53 PST
18-19 January 2025
Switzerland SailGP Team helmed by Sebastien Schneiter sails past the spectators watching from the grandstands on Race Day 1 of The Rolex SailGP Championship ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix in Auckland, New Zealand © Bob Martin for SailGP
It was a bumper race schedule for the 11 national teams, with seven action packed fleet races, and the Swiss picked up their first race win of the Season in front of 12,000 spectators. Auckland is the shortest course on SailGP's 2025 Season calendar and delivered some of the most epic racing and top speeds of the Rolex SailGP Championship so far.
Saturday's racing conditions were near perfect, with wind speeds of 17 km/h, gusting to 22 km/h, and the four fleet races produced four different winners, including the Swiss. Sunday was top of the range with a big chop and 40km/h, gusting at 46 km/h, which challenged the new Swiss crew at times, as they continued to get to grips with the fleet's new high-speed 'T-Foils'.
But the team put in a strong performance and placed 11,10,1,3,10,10,4 across the two days, finishing 7th overall on 21 points. The Brits, Aussies and Spanish made the three-team Super Sunday final, with Australia SailGP Team taking the ITM New Zealand Sail Grand Prix title, setting them up for their home event next month.
Swiss Driver Sebastien Schneiter, "It was wind against tide today so very choppy, especially on the right-hand side of the racecourse, in front of the grandstand, which made it exciting for the spectators! It was a good day and really valuable for us to get the hours in, in those big conditions. We learnt a lot and again saw good progress throughout the day. Our best race was our last race, which shows the team is really progressing as we go.
"We're still quite a new team racing together. We've got some experience on the handles, with Matt and Stewart, I've been here for a while now, then we have some new people in the flight control [Bryan], wing [Arnaud] and P6/Strategist [Maud]. They are all doing an awesome job and learning really quickly, which is impressive, and for us right now, it's about bringing it all together and trying to learn as quickly as we can, to keep moving forward in the fleet."
Wing trimmer, Arnaud Psarofaghis, "It was pretty tough out there today and it's really tricky to sail in these conditions. But we managed to get used to it and had a really nice race at the end, with a great start, better boat handling and generally a much better set up [of the boat].
"The rhythm of the weekend was pretty good for us, we could still learn during the day, which is super hard sometimes, and we ended each day on a higher score which is positive. There are a few points we want to work on and progress in Sydney [next month] but we know what they are, once we do this we will be able to move forward in the fleet and then be at the front.
The racing continues for Switzerland SailGP Team next month with a return to Sydney Harbour, for the KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix | Sydney, taking place 8-9 February, 15:00 - 16:30 AEST / 5:30 - 7:00am CET.