Fourth in Season 3, seventh in Season 4, and fifth in 2025, the French SailGP team wants to reach a new milestone in 2026, with the objective of finally reaching the Grand Final. To achieve this, several changes were made during the off-season, including the arrival of a new team manager, Philippe Presti, and a modified crew. Sailorz takes stock just one week before the kickoff of the new season in Perth (January 17-18).
Present on the SailGP circuit since its debut in 2019, the French team finally wants to break the glass ceiling that has so far prevented them from qualifying for the Final. Each year, following the last Grand Prix, this Final brings together the top three in the overall standings for a single race with a handsome check for $2 million for the winner. That check was collected at the end of 2025 by the British team Emirates GBR, who succeeded Spain and Australia (winners of the first three seasons) on the winner’s list.
Since Quentin Delapierre succeeded Billy Besson in the fall of 2021 as the driver of the French F50, the “Bleus” have racked up ten podiums, including three victories (Cadiz and Sydney in 2022/2023, Sassnitz in 2025). However, a lack of consistency has so far prevented them from aiming higher, as the French skipper admits: “Last year, we competed in ten out of twelve Grand Prix events [the French boat was not ready for the first two, Editor’s note], we made the final four times, but alongside that, we broke the wing and finished 10th in Portsmouth and underperformed in Geneva, Saint-Tropez, and Cadiz. We certainly had some bad luck, but we weren’t able to turn things back in our favor; it’s up to us to fix that and very rarely fall out of the top 5 while continuing to win Grand Prix events.”
It was with this in mind that the highly experienced Philippe Presti was recruited at the end of 2025 as team manager. He is one of the most renowned coaches in the world, both in SailGP (Australian, American, Italian teams…) and the America’s Cup (BMW Oracle, Luna Rossa…), and has been “courted” for several seasons by Bruno Dubois, the team’s CEO, and Quentin Delapierre.
“We finally managed to bring
Philippe Presti back to his home turf!”
“We’ve been in contact with ‘Prestoche’ for several years,” confirms the skipper. “He helped us a lot with Manon (Audinet) for the Tokyo Olympics preparation (in Nacra 17). He was the one who then oversaw my first sail in the F50 in Cadiz (in October 2021); Jimmy Spithill (then the US team skipper) had agreed for him to spend a day with us. Since then, I’ve been trying to convince him to join us, sometimes with arguments, sometimes with humor, but in vain. At the end of the Cup in Barcelona, I felt he was close to accepting; finally, he had decided to give one last hand to Jimmy Spithill.”How was Philippe Presti finally persuaded? “Up until now, I was very connected with Jimmy, a strong coach/driver and friendly relationship. At the end of the Luna Rossa campaign (they competed together in the 2024 America’s Cup with the Italian challenge), as he had the opportunity to launch his own SailGP team (under the colors of Red Bull and Italy), I agreed to manage it while telling him that once everything was in place, I would likely go another way, knowing that in the Italian team configuration, the dynamic was different since Jimmy was the CEO and no longer the driver. Bruno, Stephan (Kandler), and Quentin were patient and persistent, and during the last season, I felt it was the right time.“
Other arguments played a role in Philippe Presti’s decision. First, “the dual SailGP/America’s Cup project,” in the words of Bruno Dubois—a later communication will be made regarding the French challenge, which is one of the five founding members of the America’s Cup Partnership. Second, the presence in the French SailGP team of an “old” companion, Philippe Mourniac, who is the French team’s coach since last year. “We are very close; he was my teammate in match racing, we worked a lot as a driver/tactician and tactician/strategist duo, it’s nice to recreate that relationship. These past years, I have only been in foreign teams; it’s great to return to this cocoon with people I appreciate.“ Quentin Delapierre adds: “It’s great news for France; we finally managed to bring Philippe Presti back to his home turf!”
A remodeled team
One of the first tasks the new team manager worked on was remodeling the crew, with the arrivals of Leigh McMillan (45, a former member of the French team) as wing trimmer and Bruno Mourniac (30, Philippe’s son) as grinder, replacing Kévin Péponnet and Matthieu Vandame. “We didn’t make these changes on a whim,” comments Quentin Delapierre, who admits that the separation from Kévin Péponnet (now in the German team) “wasn’t easy” due to the proximity of the two sailors. “It starts with facts; you ask yourself what you need, if you have the resources internally, and what a potential change might make you gain or lose. Once you’ve weighed it up, you take the decisions.“Was the decision to keep Quentin Delapierre (33) ever in question? “I’m not the type to get stuck with someone, and I wasn’t afraid to remove Billy Besson or Marie Riou despite the criticism I received,” replies Bruno Dubois. “But if you look at the statistics, Quentin remains the best starter, by far; we need to work on what comes next, and that’s what Philippe Presti is going to tackle.” This work has already begun: “Philippe is pushing me enormously to be more precise and relevant on the course, to become more of a tactician again, a role I had delegated too much. We’ve done many laps of the course in front of the screens to make that more solid,” confirms the skipper.
The decision to recruit Leigh McMillan, for its part, was quickly obvious according to Bruno Dubois: “We had almost made the change a year earlier when Leigh was coming out of the Cup campaign with Ineos; he had eventually joined the Brazilian team. Now he was available, and we jumped at the opportunity—he’s someone who has been in an America’s Cup final, after all!“ According to Philippe Presti, “When you listen to the onboard communications, it’s sometimes volcanic; Leigh’s experience and Anglo-Saxon side will help stabilize the energy. If you add the fire of Bruno (Mourniac) who wants to give it his all, there are great things to be done.”
The financing bet pays off
His arrival as team manager is also synonymous with an expanded role. “I’m interested in the overall performance of the team—sailing of course, but that also includes the shore team and the coaching of the trainers, whose role has evolved with the coach booth (the shoreside coaching cell introduced last year that interacts live with the crew during races). My role is to grease the wheels of all that, while Bruno (Dubois) retains the CEO role, in charge of management, media, and partners.”For Dubois, “It was the right time to make these changes; it allows us to set ourselves up for the next three to four years, knowing that we are fully booked with sponsorships and investors until at least the end of 2029.” A new title partner for the team will be announced next week, securing an operating budget “around $8 million (just under €7 million),” according to Bruno Dubois, who adds: “It increases every time we add events; there are also sailor transfers that impact budgets because as we don’t have enough people for certain positions, the guys negotiate; we are starting to talk about figures seen in more popular sports.” The CEO adds: “Using the American Magic base will allow us to train reserve athletes and more people, like Enzo (Balanger) with us, thereby potentially lowering the costs.”
Ultimately, Bruno Dubois is pleased to see that the French team has succeeded in self-financing: “I remember meeting financiers in France a few years ago; when I told them the team could be bought for $10 to $15 million, they told me it was nonsense and that there was no money to be made in sailing. Today, the latest team sold for $70 million, so we can say today that the bet has paid off.” Now it remains to meet the sporting challenge, which France SailGP Team fully intends to do in Perth for the first meeting of the 2026 season, eagerly awaited by Quentin Delapierre: “I don’t want to tease, but there’s a good chance it will be the most beautiful Grand Prix in the history of SailGP, because there are 20 knots or more of southwesterly wind every day with a bit of sea; it’s going to be magnificent to watch and very technical for us. You’ll have to commit, put the blinkers on, and tighten the chin strap—it’s going to be very intense!“
Image : France SailGP Team
