If you are one of those thousands of people who watched a Formula 1 Grand Prix on Sunday for the first time in a very long time, then chances are you will be keen on the 37th Cup in just over two years. of America. The oldest sporting competition in the world becomes with each edition a pinnacle of modernity and technology. Since the boats are mounted on foils, those profiled wings that literally lift them out of the water when they pick up speed, they have earned their nickname “Formula 1 of the seas”. Or lakes.
Also read: Alinghi enters 37th America’s Cup with Red Bull
The comparison definitely made sense on Tuesday with the presentation in Geneva of the new Alinghi Red Bull Racing team, which will try to take over the famous silver ewer from New Zealanders in 2024. Two days after the title of world champion of Max Verstappen, the young driver of the Red Bull team, this association is a stroke of glory in the world of sport. The challenge is as much technological as it is sporting, and it is undoubtedly what convinced Ernesto Bertarelli to plunge again.
International level sailors
In 2003, Serono’s heir was accused of having bought New Zealand know-how. This will no longer be possible now, because the new regulations require a team of the nationality of the Challenge that it represents. This will not be a problem: Alinghi Red Bull Racing will be able to rely on a wave of young sailors born of what has been called the “Alinghi generation”. Twenty years later, Switzerland still has no access to the sea, but has a yacht club in Gstaad and dozens of world-class sailors.
Last year, The weather had devoted an investigation to the astonishing persistence of the Alinghi “brand” in the French-speaking region, ten years after its last appearance in the America’s Cup. It appeared that beyond the victory, this boat, this project embodied “a certain idea of Switzerland”. Dynamic, entrepreneurial and innovative. At the time, the world envied us the successes of UBS, Roger Federer, EPFL.
The atmosphere is very different at the end of 2021, and the waves that submerge us at regular intervals are not refreshing. We must therefore be delighted with this project which bears the name of challenge. Ernesto Bertarelli said it: he is not leaving to redo what he has already done, but to create new momentum, a new adventure, by highlighting Swiss and particularly Lake Geneva know-how. May a new generation of passionate young people come aboard.
–
–
