(Paris) The quadruple F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, retired from the paddocks since last year, announced on Wednesday the creation of a German team on the SailGP championship, an international regatta circuit aboard ultramodern catamarans.
“I see a lot of potential as SailGP enters its fourth season […] The parallels between navigators and Formula 1 have been around for a long time. The boats are fascinating and the speeds on the water are incredibly high,” the former racing driver said in a statement.
Sebastien Vettel has invested an undisclosed amount in the launch of this team, alongside German businessman Thomas Riedel. Both “will play an active role in the management and performance of the team”, specifies the press release sent by SailGP.
The two men entrusted the helm of their F50 – one of the fastest boats on the water reaching almost 100 km/h – to navigator Erik Heil, 33 years old and double bronze medalist in Olympic sailing.
The German team will take part in the first event of the 4e tour season which kicks off in Chicago next month, June 16-17.
Facing them, the nine teams involved include some of the best sailors in the world, such as the Briton Ben Ainslie, quadruple gold medalist at the Olympic Games, the New Zealander Peter Burling, the youngest coxswain to win the America’s Cup, or Tom Slingsby, at the head of the Australian team, which won the first 3 editions of SailGP.
France, led by Quentin Delapierre, finished 4e of the general classification during the 3e season. The youngest world champion in the history of Formula 1, four times titled (from 2010 to 2013), the German Sebastian Vettel, now 35, retired from sport in 2022.