Spain driver Diego Botin on Ian Lipinski and Alber‘getting back in the game' after slow season start
by SailGP 5 May 00:14 AEST
Spain driver Diego Botin - Spain SailGP Team © SailGP
Young guns Spain may have swept to victory last season, stealing the Season 4 Championship title from under the noses of league heavyweights Australia and New Zealand, but they began the 2025 Season with a string of mixed results.
The team finished in the top half of the fleet in both Dubai and Auckland, with 4th and 2nd place finishes respectively, but followed this with a 7th place result in Sydney and 5th place in Los Angeles, the latter of which played host to very first ever event win last season. Finally, in San Francisco, Spain became the fifth winner in the first five events of the season, beating NorthStar Canada and France in the three-way shootout to clinch a definitive win. Reflecting on the event, driver Diego Botin says it was the first time this season where the team managed to 'put everything together across a whole weekend'.
"Until San Francisco, we didn't have a full weekend where we performed in every race," he said. The team's worst fleet race ranking of the weekend was a 6th, but this was overshadowed by the four podium positions, including two wins, which filled its fleet report card. The results, and ultimate victory, have given the team 'good confidence' for the rest of the season, Botin says. "The feeling in the team at the beginning of the season was that we had some strong points, but we weren't managing to put things together," he says. "We were just behind the top teams, who were getting an edge on the season points." The team needed, he says, 'a good performance' to 'get back in the game'. "We are focused on the process all the time - it's constant, but it was an important time for us to do well in San Francisco."
Spain's win meant it became the fifth team in as many events to pick up a win; New Zealand won Dubai, Australia won Auckland, Emirates GBR won Sydney and NorthStar Canada won Los Angeles. This marks a notable shift from previous seasons where certain teams have dominated event wins. In Season 1, Australia won four out of five events. In Season 2, this performance continued, with the team winning five of eight. In Season 3, Australia's dominance began to slip; they still won the season, but their number of event wins dropped to four in a calendar of 11. In Season 4, New Zealand overtook the Aussies as the most dominant team in terms of event wins, topping the leaderboard five times in 13 stops.
This season's shift in event wins means the level of the fleet has 'become super even', Botin says, with teams benefiting from the experience of multiple seasons on the water and 'data sharing'. "We are getting better all the time," he says. He adds that the mixed results so far this season have also 'better for fans' - 'not knowing who is going to win and watching those fights around the course'. One key factor, he says, is changes to the weekend racing format. Previously a typical SailGP event would include five fleet races - three on day one and two on day two - followed by the winner-takes-all Final.
This season however, the league is trying to stage as many fleet races as possible - usually seven - four on day one and three on day two - followed by the Final. This bumper racing schedule means 'the better teams have a better chance of getting into the Final because of probability', Botin says. "There's more action, more starts and a 12 boat fleet - SailGP is in a really good place right now."
After securing the team's first win this season in San Francisco, Spain is in a commanding position on the overall season leaderboard. The team is currently 3rd with 36 points, just two points behind Emirates GBR in second and three points behind Australia at the top of the podium with 39 points. However, Botin says the team must remain vigilant as it heads into New York and the second half of the season. The 2025 Season has already been marred with dramatic incidents, capsizes and collisions, resulting in devastating penalty points for many teams.
"We have seen that anything can happen, so we need to keep our focus," he says. "If you relax at any point, things can go really wrong - it only takes a small action to throw everything away." Key examples include ROCKWOOL DEN's collision with a race mark in the first fleet race of Los Angeles. The incident caused serious damage to the team's F50, which could not be repaired in time to get them on the start line of either L.A. or San Francisco. As well as losing crucial points through not competing, the team was docked eight points from its 2025 Season score, plus 12 event penalty points.
Elsewhere, Germany Deutsche Bank lost 12 season points after being found at fault for three separate incidents in Sydney, while Mubadala Brazil lost four points for being involved in a collision with Germany. "It's a very fine line between avoiding incidents and not being aggressive enough," Botin says, adding that 'staying back' can mean 'becoming too conservative'. "We are always trying to find the balance because you really want to avoid those big incidents," he says.
Spain and the rest of the F50 fleet have a month to go until meeting again in New York on June 7-8, with Spain looking to better its 7th place finish here last season. After New York, the league heads to Europe for a string of summer events, culminating in the team's home event in Cádiz. Returning home to Europe will hand a performance edge to the Spanish team which won't have to overcome the 'big factor' of jet lag.
"We struggle a lot at events where we have to travel far and don't have much time on site before the event," Botin says, adding that racing in Europe 'plays into our favor'. Regarding the venues however - Portsmouth, Sassnitz, Geneva, Saint-Tropez and Cádiz, he 'cannot say' if they will produce top results for the team. "We are better suited to some more than others - we'll just try the best we can," he says.
Looking back on the season so far, he says he's impressed by the 'outstanding performance' of the British team under the charge of new driver Dylan Fletcher, who rejoined the league at the start of the season. "Him [Fletcher] coming back into it and doing so well so very impressive," he says. He also points to the performance of NorthStar Canada.
After not being able to compete in Auckland due to the injury of flight controller Billy Gooderham, the team picked up 2-1-2 finishes in Sydney, Los Angeles and San Francisco. "It's impressive to have such good performances for three events in a row." However, the fleet is 'very tight' and 'up and down'. "I think we'll continue to see many shake ups throughout the rest of the season."
The F50 fleet will next meet for battle at the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix on June 7-8.