Not just motorsport and supercars: Ferrari is set to venture into the world of professional sailing competitions with its own racing team for the America's Cup. This announcement was reiterated by Ferrari chairman John Elkann during a meeting with shareholders. The project, first mentioned in early 2024, is now entering an active phase. Ferrari has already recruited legendary Italian yachtsman Giovanni Soldini, who has been a long-standing offshore racing skipper for Maserati.
Ferrari aims to enhance its technical know-how with this new venture, with all learnings set to be passed on to its racing and automotive divisions.
According to Elkann, the decision to compete in professional sailing was inspired by founder Enzo Ferrari’s pursuit of new challenges and will help to further enhance the future racing and sports cars of the brand.
The 57-year-old Giovanni Soldini will join Elkann and Ferrari on this new adventure as the team principal.
About Giovanni Soldini
Giovanni Soldini was born in Milan on 16 May 1966. Ocean navigator and pioneer in the development of innovative technologies and trim for racing yachts, he has over thirty years of solo and crewed ocean races behind him, including:
- 2 x solo round-the-world races (one second and one first place),
- 6 х x Québec-Saint Malo (one win in the monohull class),
- 6 х Ostar (two wins in the 50′ and 40′ classes),
- 3 х Transat Jacques Vabre (one win in the 40′ class)
- more than 40 transoceanic races.
Between 2001 and 2005, Soldini was the first Italian to compete in the 60-foot trimaran class ORMA with the multihull first named Fila, then Tim. From 2007 to 2009, on board Telecom, he raced in the new Class 40, taking first place in all the most important regattas he took part in, as well as winning the class world championship in 2009.
On board the monohull VOR 70 Maserati, Soldini conquered the new record on the Golden Route from New York to San Francisco in 2013 (13,225 miles in 47 days, 42 minutes and 29 seconds) and won important regattas such as the Cape2Rio in 2014, setting a new record that is still unbeaten today.
Since 2016, on board the Maserati Multi70, the first foiling ocean trimaran, he has set the Hong Kong-London route record in 2018 (15,083 actual miles in 36 days, 2 hours, 37 minutes and 12 seconds), the English Channel record in 2021 and the record on the original Fastnet route, and he has won numerous victories in the RORC Transatlantic Race, RORC Caribbean 600 and Rolex Middle Sea Race.
Soldini has always been passionate about spreading the culture of the sea and is committed to its preservation. In 2022 he transformed Maserati Multi70 into the first full-electric racing boat and collected data on the ocean that is useful to the scientific community for the UNESCO Ocean Decade.
In 2000, by decision of French President Jacques Chirac, he received the Légion d’honneur for the rescue of Isabelle Autissier. In 2004, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. In 2008, he was awarded the Medaglia d’Oro al Merito di Marina for his achievements in sailing sport by the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano.
America's Cup in Italy
Gaetano Manfredi, Grant Dalton, Giorgia Meloni and Andrea Abodi
On 27 May, Rome hosted the official welcome ceremony of the 38th America's Cup, which will be held in Naples in 2027. The Cup, aka The Auld Mug, was brought to Italy by Grant Dalton, CEO of Emirates Team New Zealand, the current holder of the trophy, and America's Cup Events. The ceremony was attended by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Naples Mayor Gaetano Manfredi and Minister for Youth and Sport Andrea Abodi. At the end of the ceremony, Grant Dalton presented the Prime Minister with a scale model of the 37th America's Cup winning yacht, Taihoro.
