There was hope—however slim—that the team’s F50 could be patched up, but with a crucial board case unavailable and just five days between events, reality has hit hard. Driver Nicolai Sehested made no effort to sugarcoat the situation:
“We simply can’t have the boat racing this weekend in San Francisco – it’s not going to be ready, and that’s obviously devastating news for us, ROCKWOOL, our fans, and the league.”
The board case issue is proving to be a major stumbling block. Unlike a Formula 1 car that can simply swap out a wheel and get back on track, SailGP does not have spare board cases sitting on the sidelines. Right now, only two are in production at SailGP Technologies in the UK, leaving the Danish squad with no choice but to sit this one out.
A Tough Penalty to Swallow
The situation goes from bad to worse when factoring in the penalties. Already hit with 12 event points and 8 season damage points for their Los Angeles incident, missing San Francisco effectively amounts to a double-whammy. Sitting ninth on the season leaderboard, Sehested and his team are staring down the real possibility that their campaign is over before it even reaches Europe.
“To be honest, it feels like quite a harsh penalty to pay right now – missing two events, plus getting maximum damage points,” Sehested admitted. “We understand the rules are the rules, but it does feel brutal, for hitting the mark by 50mm.
"We made a silly mistake, but not a dangerous mistake – the equivalent of hitting the wall in Formula 1. In that case, you would put on a new tire, and go racing again.”
There’s an ongoing umpire review to determine whether ROCKWOOL Denmark will be awarded compensatory points for missing the Oracle San Francisco Sail Grand Prix, but the damage—both literal and figurative—has already been done.
What’s Next for the Danes?
For now, it’s about damage control—both on and off the water. The team needs to regroup, hope for some form of league intervention, and figure out how to salvage the remainder of the season. Sehested is clearly feeling the weight of it all:
“Our season is massively at risk of being done before we’ve even gotten to the European leg, so it’s a tough one to swallow for the team. We’ve just got to stand together, try to figure out how we get on from here, and come back stronger.”
One thing is for sure: ROCKWOOL Denmark will be watching San Francisco from the sidelines, but their fight for survival in SailGP Season 5 is only just beginning.
