The most advanced technology in F1 meets sailing. A real revolution. Design, composite engineering, the use of artificial intelligence, simulators… at the service of the monocoque. Red Bull and Alinghi share ‘know-how’. One more incentive for the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona 2024.

In October 2021, the continuity of the association of Mercedes-AMG with the INEOS-Britannia owned by the English billionaire Sir James Ratcliffe, directed by Sir Ben Ainslie, quadruple Olympic champion and leader of the Challenger of Record (first challenger) was announced. of the 37th America’s Cup.

Additionally, he is one of only two British sailors to have won the America’s Cup (with Oracle Team USA in 2013).

Shortly after, in December, the Austrian Red Bull team announced its merger with Alinghi, owned by Swiss billionaire of Italian origin Ernesto Bertarelli, double winner of the America’s Cup in 2003 and 2007, forming the current Alinghi Red Bull Racing and bringing the knowledge and the Formula 1 experience from the circuits to the regatta fields.

This move has also brought to the America’s Cup one of the great sporting rivalries between Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Mercedes-AMG’s Toto Wolff.

These associations have also increased the budgets of these America’s Cup teams (estimated at around 150-160 million euros), but they had no other option than to take advantage of the resources of the great Formula 1 teams (with budgets of 200 to 300 million euros) to end the dominance of Emirates Team New Zealand (winner in 1997, 2000, 2017 and 2021)

Areas of expertise are likely to be in design, composites (combined synthetic materials) engineering, the use of artificial intelligence and simulators, along with the introduction of F1 performance monitoring and control, at least for the time being. training and development of the AC75 (monohulls with ‘foils’ (ailerons) of 22.90 meters in length).

With ten teams in Formula 1, there are plenty of opportunities for other challenging teams to team up. There is already talk of a possible relationship between the Italian Luna Rossa with the Ferrari team.

In July this year it was announced that Red Bull Advanced Technologies, the high-performance single-seater engineering division of Red Bull Racing, would share with the Alinghi team its engineering and design experience derived from competing in Formula 1, the cycle fastest developing in the world.

Located at the Red Bull Technology Campus in Milton Keynes, UK, Red Bull Advanced Technologies engineers and designers are already working together with Alinghi based in Ecublens, Switzerland, in specific areas where technology is believed to F1 can add performance to the monocoque with AC75 foils, which are already being designed by Spaniard Marcelino Botín.

In particular, aerodynamics, simulation, composites, and computer systems design and artificial intelligence seem to have many parallels between the two sports.

With Christian Horner as the team’s managing director, it is Rob Gray, its technical director since the end of 2020, who runs the Red Bull Advanced Technologies division and oversees all of its current projects.

The partnership between the INEOS Britannia team and the Applied Science division of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, which had already started in the last edition (2021), with 30 Applied Science engineers working on the then INEOS project TEAM UK.

It now brings together the best in the world of high-performance automotive and marine engineering under the supervision of James Allison, Technical Director of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and INEOS Britannia.

Team INEOS Britannia co-engineers with the Brackley-based Mercedes-AMG Formula One team in Northamptonshire, UK, which has dominated Formula 1 for years, helping Lewis Hamilton to six of his seven world titles.

Leading the INEOS Britannia AC75 monohull design team is German naval designer Martin Fischer, alongside the aforementioned British engineer James Allison, appointed directly by Mercedes F1 team boss and co-owner Toto Wolff.

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