Obvious Signs
The Kiwis winning the America's Cup was signalled from a long, long way back...
When Jean Todt took over the Ferrari Formula 1 team after a winless season in 1993, what he inherited was a ‘mess’ with the engine people blaming the chassis team and vice versa whilst public criticism abounded around their driving partnership of Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger. Even those two fell out. What Todt set out to mastermind was to be centred around a driver beyond reproach and moves were made to try and secure Ayrton Senna. Tragedy and fate ensured that didn’t happen so Todt cosied up to Michael Schumacher and arguably the greatest team in the sport up to that point was created.
Schumacher’s approach was simple but highly effective and boiled down to four points:
Set an example with levels of fitness and a work ethic which instilled and reinforced principles for the whole team.
No public criticism of the team at any point.
Understand what was important to the team at an individual level.
Share every win and celebrate to make everyone feel valued and involved.
The results came thick and fast and many still working today at Maranello long for the days of Schumacher and Todt and reminisce wistfully about those glory years. Today in the America’s Cup we have a team in Emirates Team New Zealand that hit those same highs in Barcelona and can rightly be held in the same conversation as the Schumacher-era Ferrari, Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, Pele-era Brazil, the Carter/McCaw-era All Blacks and the DiMaggio/Yogi Berra-era New York Yankees.
The re-invention that the Kiwi team goes through every Cup cycle is what ultimately makes it so strong. As the boat crosses the finish line, the plan is done and the blueprint largely ripped up. Honestly abounds and sacred cows (sheep?) are firmly put out to pasture as the re-plot begins with the sole intention of ‘winning.’ The focus is relentless and having seen a small glimpse from the inside, there’s no magic formula but just sheer hard work from everyone, from top to bottom.
To liken Emirates Team New Zealand to Ferrari, you have Grant Dalton as Jean Todt in the over-arching role, Kevin Shoebridge (the COO) in the Ross Brawn role working with the athletes, engineers and designers and in Pete Burling you have Schumacher who inspires all around him on the sporting side. Not one of those components is irreplaceable, and they all know it, but a bit like the Beatles, when they come together and have the team around them, boy can they play a tune. Up to now they’ve been unbeatable and the way they won almost everything in the lead up to the Match (Vilanova remains a sore point), and then aced INEOS Britannia ruthlessly, it’s hard to argue that this team won’t be at the forefront for a while still, so long as they can stay together.
Reflecting on the campaign for AC37 there were clear and obvious signs that the Kiwis were on a whole other level and I hark back to the report that I wrote on the 25th October 2023, the last sailing session of ‘Te Rehutai’ in Barcelona where the team ventured out in fresh to frightening conditions on their last run before heading home for the summer season in Auckland: “Over short laps and across time-on-distance start lines, this was no ‘survival mode’ sailing – this was race practice with the pressure firmly on the sailors. Fascinating to watch as the two-hour session progressed and the hard-learned techniques from Auckland’s late summer came to bear. Tacking up the beachfront, just off the Port Olímpic, the Kiwis were more than happy to let their AC75 drop into displacement, believing in the sheer power that they could generate to get low-riding again. Downwind, runs were deep VMG, scarily so at times but the concentration on rudder immersion throughout was admirable. What a boat. What a team. Very much operating all round at the highest level.”
That session alone, where the sailors were concentrating on high-end pre-sets and heavy-weather technique, sent shockwaves down the Port Vell. No-one else went out that day. The waves were too big and the wind was above the 21 knot limit that would be imposed for racing. What would be the point? Well for the Kiwis, the point was to leave an indelible imprint in the psyche and show where the level was. This was Paul Elvström sailing off the beach at a Finn World Championship in the 1950’s, gybing around at breakneck pace and proving to the Race Committee that the day’s racing should not be abandoned whilst killing the opposition with class.
Another example of efficiency came early in the campaign when the sailors stacked the AC40 and crumpled the bow whilst training in Auckland in late 2022. Observers said they would be out until the New Year but the reality was they were back on the water in days. Come Barcelona and the crane malfunction that saw ‘Taihoro’ dropped luckily directly onto the cradle and the real defining moment of the campaign occurred. What happened in the aftermath was off-the-scale impressive from the shore team and quite frankly those guys are the Ferrari equivalent of the pit team.
Croissants, pastries and donuts came in and the boys, under the guidance of Sean Regan and Geoff Senior made a plan and just got down to work with zero thought about the clock. If it was to be all day and all night for the next 5 days, so be it. These guys just revelled in the adversity and let’s be honest, if the bog cured faster, the boat would have been out even quicker.
If we’re honest, Grant Dalton panicked a bit at this moment and did interviews saying “we’re definitely out for the Round Robins…etc etc” and spoke of Cup-ending disasters and drew a bizarre analogy with the Titanic. Meanwhile, in the video that the team released you could see Kevin Shoebridge laying out carbon sheeting and the white jumpsuit brigade just going about their work. ‘Taihoro’ came out and raced on an uncontested course on the 1st September 2024 as Alinghi Red Bull Racing were disqualified and the Kiwis put the hammer down as if nothing had happened. The boat was at full tension, race pace and arced-up with the sailors coming ashore relaxed and full of confidence that nothing had been lost in terms of pace or control. It was at that point that the writing was on the wall.
As the Kiwis stepped away at the end of the Round Robin series, what was apparent to all the team recons was that they had aced the fleet with asymmetric foils. In simple terms, that has to be a killer to morale whilst up aloft, the sails looked 2021 vintage - recut but definitely not at Cup winning standards. When the team took the opportunity to train on the course in between races of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, the sailors looking on would have known that ETNZ was hitting heights unseen in the AC75 before.
No surprise then that come the Match, they stormed the gates and won four in a row before losing two in conditions that were more of the Britannia profile. Those were tight affairs but three on the bounce after a tense layday where honest words would no doubt have been imparted from the likes of uber-coach Ray Davies, Dalts and Shoeb, left little doubt that the Kiwis were quite simply on another level. Play it down as they might now - and Grant gave a terrific interview that steps so much into their overall approach - you come away with a strong sense that come AC38, they’re going to again be right at the races.
Sporting dynasties do come to an end though. Schumacher left Ferrari in 2006 after winning seven world titles feeling that he could do no more and not wanting to stand in the way of Felipe Massa who he felt deserved an honest shot at the World Championship. The German returned to the sport between 2010 and 2012 with Mercedes but never quite hit the highs again. There’s a lesson there and it’s one that Emirates Team New Zealand know only too well: No one is bigger than the collective team.
If the Kiwis can keep the band together, another hit will be ensured in 2027 and the unprecedented four-peat will be squarely on. Thereafter I suspect that key personnel will have run their course, it’s inevitable, and the mantel will have to be taken up by perhaps some of the key personnel today.
Do they have the competitive skills and all-round management ability to achieve what Dalton, Shoebridge et al have done? Time will tell but for now they are the top of the pile and nigh on unbeatable.
Magnus Wheatley