‘We’re still on top’: Tom Slingsby’s Team Australia out to continue SailGP dominance

Tom Slingsby’s Team Australia is on top of the SailGP leaderboard and is edging closer to winning another $1 million prize.

Team Australia is confident of claiming a third consecutive SailGP crown next year despite facing more competition than ever in the innovative series.

SailGP, likened to Formula One for its travelling circus of weekend races around the world, is heating up as its third season heads to a climax with five rounds to go.

Team Australia, led by Olympic gold medallist helmsman Tom Slingsby, dominated the first two editions of SailGP and is atop the season three leaderboard heading to the next event at Dubai on November 11-12.

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Australia’s dominance in SailGP was recognised last week when the team was named the World Sailing 2022 Team of the Year at the World Sailing Awards.

“It’s been an amazing season,” Slingsby told news.com.au.

“We started on a real high. We carried our momentum from winning season two into season three.”

The two-time defending champions are four points ahead of New Zealand, who put together a hot patch of form across the European races.

With more teams being added to an ever-growing SailGP calendar, the Aussies were always bound to face stiffer challenges from the likes of the Kiwis, Great Britain, France and an improving Canadian team.

Team Australia is leading SailGP season 3. Photo: Brett Costello for SailGP.

But as Slingsby puts it, some things change but others remain the same.

“As a whole, we’re really happy,” he said.

“We’re leading, we’re obviously really happy about that. I guess there’s a lot of movement going in the pointscore but the one constant that keeps happening is Australia’s still on top.

“A lot of teams are going up and down and we’ve held the number one position for a few years and we’re still on top.

“Obviously it’s getting tougher. The teams are getting better. They watch us, they study our data, they can copy what we’re doing out there so it’s very hard to stay on top but somehow we’re managing to do that even through the ups and downs.

“We’re still able to remain consistent enough to be leading the table.”

Slingsby had an uncharacteristically poor start in the last race in Spain and will be looking to bounce back at the inaugural event in Dubai.

“On Day 1 in Spain I think we won the day for starting then on Day 2 we had a couple of shockers,” he recalled.

“That really let us down and stopped us from having a good shot of winning that final race. I’ve got to go back and look at that. Ultimately starting is the responsibility of driver and myself. I’ve got to back and look at all the tapes.

“But we’ve got to debrief it as a team and figure out how we can reduce those errors that I made and what information I need from the team to make sure I’ve got everything I need to make better decisions than I did. We’re onto that, we know that was a weakness and we’ve got to improve.”

Tom Slingsby in action for Team Australia. Photo: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP.

SailGP’s next stop at Dubai is a narrow course that will present a different challenge.

“I’ve never sailed there,” Slingsby said.

“I need to do a bit of research on weather patterns, geography and the lay of the land and how that might affect the race course

“Dubai being somewhere I haven’t sailed before - I know the racetrack is going to be really tight, we’ve got to shift our focus and work on our starts a bit more and turning corners is going to be extremely important.

“Getting to Mark 1, getting to the first turn in good shape is extremely important. That’s really important on a street or city circuit for us like Copenhagen or like Dubai will be.”

Team Australia’s attention slowly shifts to the overall pointscore and ensuring it finishes in the top three to guarantee a spot in the winner-takes-all million-dollar race in San Francisco in May.

“We’re on track. We’re leading, we’re right where we want to be,” Slingsby said.

“Now everyone starts looking over their shoulder thinking about points. We need to manage New Zealand a little bit better and make sure we can maintain our lead over them.

SailGP will return to Sydney Harbour in January. (Photo by Bob MARTIN / SAILGP / AFP)

“But then we’re also really looking to how many points we’ve got to fourth place — that’s really the important one for us. Slowly we’ve actually been opening that gap. We’re out to I think 10 points or so to fourth place, which is great because if we can head into the final event with a 10-point lead over fourth place, that guarantees our spot in the million dollar race.

“From now on we all start looking at the points table a little more carefully. And we might need to focus in on certain teams and take out certain teams if it’s needed for our points.”

SailGP will come to Sydney Harbour in February next year for the third last stop in season three,with a variety of ticket options with vantage points around the harbour and at SailGP Village at Barangaroo available to purchase now.