Yahoo Autos Sebastian Vettel Announces New Yacht Racing Team
It’s easy to draw parallels between Formula 1 and SailGP. Grand Prix and international yacht racing were both born in the late 19th century. Both forms of racing developed reputations as sporting enclaves for the wealthy while pushing technology to its limits to create the fastest vehicles possible. Now, the ties between the two disciplines are getting closer. Four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel has announced the new Germany SailGP Team as a co-owner.
Vettel launched the Germany SailGP team alongside two-time Olympic bronze medalist sailor Erik Heil. Heil will be at the helm of the team’s catamaran on the water. Two-time Olympic champion Kahena Kunze will be beside Heil as the team’s onboard strategist. She won gold in Rio and Tokyo for Brazil but has a German father. The team’s full lineup will announced at a later date and debut this upcoming season, beginning with the United States Grand Prix in Chicago on June 16th and 17th.
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SailGP operates under a national team model where almost every sailor on the yacht must be a national of the team’s country. The championship’s previous season featured has nine teams representing Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.
The team’s majority owner is Thomas Riedel, president of German communications company Riedel. In a release, Riedel said:
