Mean motherf**kers. That is what it will take to win the America’s Cup for Great Britain for the first time since the competition began in 1851. That, at least, is the theory of Martin Whitmarsh, former Sail team principal at McLaren turned chief executive of Land Rover BAR. “There are racing drivers who are arrogant, selfish, mean, committed winners,” Whitmarsh explains. “I used to say when I was hiring racing drivers, of the one of my simple measures was: ‘Would I be happy for my daughter to bring him home?’ And if I was, then I had questions about him as a racing driver. Because the best racing drivers are absolutely mean motherf**kers and they are the ones who century would kill their granny for the race result.” But Sport is oversimplifying. Ainslie’s No British team has won the America’s character is, Whitmarsh attests, far more complex. Cup in its 166-year history. Sir Ben Ainslie’s “There are exceptions,” he continues. “I wouldn’t have been happy for my daughter

crew is, this summer, out to become the first to bring home Alain Prost, for example, or Lloyd Images/Getty Images Ayrton [Senna], or Kimi [Raikkonen], or even Lewis [Hamilton]. But you would Words Graham Willgoss say Jenson [Button], I would… k

36 37 He could compartmentalise. If you meet Another man on Ainslie’s team with the How can they possibly grow up in that him out of the car, he is a nice, ordinary, right credentials is , winner of the circumstance and have the balance and www.sport-magazine.co.uk affable bloke. But I think he transitions class gold medal in Rio last summer. humility that you’d like them to have? @sportmaguk when he gets into the car. He is a different “It was the first time in 24 years I’ve “We’ve made monsters in F1. Sailors facebook.com/sportmagazine personality. And Ben is exactly the same. actually watched the Olympics on TV,” says don’t get that attention, but that also has to Free app available on iPad, “Ben is a very different person on the Ainslie. “Giles’ win was fully deserved. It be an inherent part of the personality. Ben Kindle and Android devices shore to what he is out on the water. That’s was a proud moment for all of us.” is very generous like that, very humble.” quite intriguing. Because there are a lot of He is keen to stress, however, that his Ainslie also has complete conviction. Sport magazine racing drivers who are always the same: team is not built on “the billionaire model”: “Our goal is absolutely to win,” he says. PART OF WIRELESS GROUP they’re mean motherf**kers when they’re going out with an open cheque book and “It’s been great to set up a completely new on terra firma, just as they are when signing the best talent, throwing them team and take on the likes of Oracle and 18 HATFIELDS, LONDON SE1 8DJ they have their backside in a racing car. together and expecting it to work. This is a New Zealand. These teams that have been TELEPHONE 020 7959 7800 Everyone is different in their approach. team of talented grinders, not galacticos. around for decades. And to actually be FAX 020 7959 7942 “But in the white heat of competition, beating them, to stay on top of them in the EMAIL [email protected] they have to be absolutely focused, World Series, is a huge achievement.” Sailors, not monsters determined. The real winners will do If the Land Rover BAR team are Editorial absolutely anything to win.” Ainslie identifies the New Zealand and successful, Whitmarsh says it could be a EDITOR TONY HODSON (7954) We ask Ainslie, the most successful sailor Japan teams as his team’s biggest threat to breakthrough moment for in the UK. in Olympic history with four gold medals: “Our sailing nation has never won the bloody their qualifying to face the holders for the “This is a fast, dynamic, televisual sport. DEPUTY EDITOR ALEX REID (7915) what if he was the same animal with his cup in Bermuda. Whitmarsh lays down the It has never been that before. You’ve got ART DIRECTOR JOHN MAHOOD (7860) team off the boat that he is on it? thing. It really makes you think: ‘Shit!’” Martin Whitmarsh task facing them: “Winning it is difficult. all this great history, but let’s be honest: it CHIEF SUBEDITOR GRAHAM WILLGOSS (7431) “I might be thrown off a bridge,” he FEATURES EDITOR SARAH SHEPHARD (7958) replies. “[But] it’s a different intensity SENIOR WRITER AMIT KATWALA (7914) you have in a team sport as opposed to marginal gains [through] teamwork, “I was a teenager and I was at an event STAFF WRITER CHARLIE MORGAN (7901) an individual sport. You see it with many processes, having a system that’s looking with my parents,” Ainslie, who will turn individual sportsmen. You have to temper for incremental improvements. We all want 40 this weekend, explains. “We were in PICTURE EDITOR JULIAN WAIT (7961) your emotions to the team. That’s part the eureka breakthrough that’s going to Tenerife, and my mum came across a local PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA DIXON (7963) of team sport; bringing individual talents give us the victory, but actually, in these church whose patron saint was St Rita. She CONTRIBUTORS DEL GENTLEMAN, JOE McALLISTER together. The team is only as good as the well-developed technical sports, it’s about made a little prayer... The event went really sum of its parts.” incremental gains. Unless you develop with well, so she said: ‘St Rita must be a lucky Commercial We speak to Ainslie and Whitmarsh at the discipline, the focus, the rigour, the charm for you.’ This boat must be Rita HEAD OF SALES IAIN DUFFY (7991) the final event of the America’s Cup World analysis tools that find and grab those small number 25 or something. My mum is very Series in Fukuoka, Japan. It’s the last of increments, then you don’t see them, you proud of it. I’d hate to change the name – it ADVERTISING MANAGERS a series of regattas held in nine different don’t harness them. would upset her greatly, I’m sure.” NIGEL CLARKE (7997), SAM PACKHAM (7857) destinations – from Portsmouth to the Far “In F1, generally the quickest car wins. HEAD OF SPORT SOLUTIONS SIMON WARDELL (7913) East via, among others, Gothenburg and In America’s Cup, generally the quickest SPORT SOLUTIONS ELORIE PALMER (7918) Chicago. Ainslie’s team won the Japan boat wins. There is a lot of technology in Good buggers HEAD OF NEW BUSINESS NICK GEE (7876) series, and therefore take a two-point this. But you still have to take into account Mrs Ainslie can already be rightly proud of DISTRIBUTION MANAGER SIAN GEORGE (7852) head-start into the 2017 America’s Cup the psychology of these athletes, who have her son. His Olympic successes aside, he Challenger Series, beginning in Bermuda in to get hold of these bits of technology and has already lifted the America’s Cup – with DISTRIBUTION ASSISTANT NICOLA CHILTON (7440) May. The winner of that will then take on deliver the performance from them.” the USA’s Team Oracle in 2013. He is also a HEAD OF ONLINE MATT DAVIS (7825) holders Oracle in the 2017 America’s Cup, Broadly, the technology that Ainslie will knight of the British Empire. OFFICE MANAGER LAURA CORK (7826) in the same waters, the following month. take charge of in Bermuda is a state-of- “I never make anyone call me ‘Sir’,” says the-art catamaran with a solid aeroplane Ainslie. “I always felt like it would be a good COLOUR REPRODUCTION RIVAL COLOUR LTD wing-like sail and sexy ‘go-faster’ hydrofoils comeback at some point, if someone was PRINTED BY WYNDEHAM GROUP LTD Winning the bloody thing to provide lift and speed. It is, like all his being a little bit rude. It always seems like “Our goal is absolutely to win. It’s been great to Whitmarsh is clearly enjoying being part boats, called Rita. Why so? a bit of an age thing as well, doesn’t it? of a competitive operation again after a A gentleman in his 70s. You’d call him ‘sir’ take on the likes of Oracle and New Zealand – © WIRELESS GROUP 2017 year away from Formula 1. He knows what out of respect.” WIRELESS GROUP TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY it’s like to be in the business of winning. Sport is fortunate enough to be sat just teams that have been around for decades” FOR THE CONTENT OF ADVERTISEMENTS PLACED His task now is to apply that to claiming behind Ainslie on his team’s catamaran in IN SPORT MAGAZINE Mean machines: the world’s oldest international sporting Whitmarsh with Lewis one of the practice races in Fukuoka. The Sir Ben Ainslie trophy – originally awarded by the Royal Hamilton at McLaren ruthlessly orchestrated blur of co-ordinated £1 WHERE SOLD Yacht Squadron for a race around the Isle effort from the crew is a sight to behold, the Winning it first time is extraordinarily was never fast enough, short enough, close of Wight, won by the schooner America. boats gunning along separated only by a difficult. If we can do that first time out, we enough to shore, dynamic enough and it “It’s been 166 years,” he says. “There is matter of inches in some cases. will make a piece of history.” didn’t have the on-screen graphics that you HEARTY THANKS TO: EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER this fantastic trophy, produced by [London Among others to have joined Ainslie As well as being a winner, Whitmarsh and I can understand. Because this is an CONTRIBUTED TO OR PICKED UP THIS MAGAZINE. silversmiths] Garrard & Co, commissioned on board at different times are actor Mark describes Ainslie as “unusually smart and inherently bewildering sport in which two WE COULDN’T HAVE DONE ANY OF IT WITHOUT YOU. by Queen Victoria, and our sailing nation Ruffalo, Welsh rugby international Leigh humble. He has the confidence of being a boats round a marker and go off in opposite has never won the bloody thing. It really Halfpenny and All Black great Dan Carter. Is winner, but he has that rare humility and directions, and they’re racing each other. makes you think: ‘Shit!’ there an extent to which Ainslie’s team, like intelligence mixed with it… You think: ‘Hold on, what’s going on here?’ “It’s also an opportunity for me. What New Zealand rugby, encourages the guiding “I think humility comes easier because But now it’s televisual, I think it’ll be huge. racing does for you in terms of the tempo, principle of being a ‘good bugger’? sailing, even at the highest level, does not “If we win this, I think it’s bigger than Prostate Cancer UK is a registered charity in LAUNCH OF 2008 and Wales (1005541) and in Scotland the adrenaline, the focus, it is like going to “One of the first guys I employed was attract the scrutiny or acclaim that other the Bradley Wiggins [Tour de France- THE YEAR (SC039332). Registered company 2653887 war. And it’s something you miss.” Jono [Macbeth], our sailing team manager,” sports do. Having been involved in the winning] moment. It’s the oldest sporting Total Average Distribution: Ainslie has put his team together with says Ainslie. “He’s actually a Kiwi, funnily creation of some young world champions trophy in the world – 166 years, it started in 306,384 January-June 2016 the aim of making America’s Cup history. enough. He’s very much of that ilk: great in F1, in fairness to them, it’s pretty difficult the Solent, we challenged the world. And DON’T FORGET HELP KEEP PUBLIC TRANSPORT CLEAN AND TIDY FOR He personally got in touch with Whitmarsh. integrity, strength of personality. We took to remain normal and humble because we’ve never won the bloody thing.” EVERYONE BY TAKING YOUR COPY OF SPORT AWAY WITH YOU WHEN YOU “I’ve brought a complete ignorance of our time picking the guys – we wanted they get elevated to such an extent. By @grahamwillgoss LEAVE THE BUS OR TRAIN. sailing,” says Whitmarsh. “I’m not a sailor. the right skill set and personality. That’s the time they’re in their early 20s, they’re [But what I do have is] the experience important. Not just the sailing team, but millionaires living in Monaco, with the Zenith is the official timing partner of Team BAR

of being in a team looking for all these everyone – the way people behave.” whole world bowing down to them. Land Rover. Visit zenith-watches.com Harry KH, Mark Thompson/Getty Images

38 39