FIV and Red Bull Italy SailGP Team present the vision for Italian sailing ahead of the SailGP in Rome from 2027

Italian sailing looks to the future. On the occasion of the 66th International Boat Show in Genoa, the Italian Sailing Federation (FIV) and the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team met today at Casa Vela to present a shared vision of the new era of sailing and the role that Italy can play on the international scene.

Genoa is the starting point of a broader journey, which will take place in the Italy Sail Grand Prix | Rome - scheduled for 11 and 12 September 2027 and destined to return to the capital until 2029 - its first major stop. The objective shared by the Federation and the Team is not only to accompany the arrival of SailGP in Rome, but to build a long-term ecosystem for Italy around sailing, connecting FIV, the Italian Team and the SailGP League.

SailGP represents one of the most innovative expressions of contemporary sport: the F50s, foil catamarans capable of flying on the water at over 100 km/h, combine technology, data and performance with a new approach to sport entertainment, designed to bring sailing closer to an increasingly wider audience and a new generation of enthusiasts. "The Rome stage represents a moment of extraordinary relevance for Italian sailing - said Francesco Ettorre, president of the Italian Sailing Federation - Bringing SailGP to the Capital means giving our discipline a world-class showcase, in a unique setting in the world. Italian sailing is history, tradition and culture with few equals: an event of this magnitude in Rome confirms its leading role in the international sporting panorama and opens up new opportunities to bring an increasingly wider audience closer to our sport. The technology and adrenaline that SailGP brings with it themselves are an extraordinary opportunity for young Italian sailors, who will be able to look at these boats and these athletes as a horizon for their future". Thus Assia Grazioli Venier, co-owner Red Bull Italy SailGP Team: "Our fan base is what drives us: it gives strength to the athletes to win on the water and to us to tell the most beautiful stories. As a national boat we have an objective and a responsibility: to tell Made in Italy in the most beautiful way and to show our values of beauty, excellence and ambition to an audience which today means a broadcast in over 200 countries and 18 million spectators for each regatta. Women and men on the same boat is a value that for me, as a woman and as an investor also in women's sport, matters a lot: it is not only nice to have, it is a commercial potential, because it brings a fan base made up of women and men. And there is sustainability, which our fans care about: SailGP is not just a regatta on the water, it is also a competition between teams on who is more sustainable. I am Roman and in love with Rome: few know of the beautiful sea that the city benefits from in Ostia, and we have the responsibility to show this side of it. Rome and Italy that we have never been able to show."

Gian Luca Passi De Preposulo, in turn co-owner of the team, echoes her: "In this project we have seen the very strong DNA of sailing in Italy and the opportunity to create, thanks to SailGP, the Italian team on an international platform designed for the general public: men and women on board, identical boats with data shared in real time, locations that are true destinations, an equal budget cap for everyone and only one boat per nation, which effectively becomes the national team. It is no coincidence that seven out of ten new fans of SailGP come from motorsport. The partnership with the Italian Sailing Federation is an investment in future generations, in a year that will be historic for Italian sailing with the first America's Cup in our country after 174 years. Thanks to Councilor Onorato and the institutions, the Italian stage will arrive in Rome: the aim is to create communities and educate a public that has always seen sailing as a non-stadium sport associate with this sport and its values."

The words of Alessandro Onorato, Councilor for Major Events, Tourism, Sport and Fashion of Rome Capital: "Rome is known throughout the world for its history, its monuments, its archaeology: our challenge is to discover the Rome of the sea. Few know that the city has 17 kilometers of coastline, and SailGP arrives just as the redevelopment works of the Ostia seafront are starting. Major sporting events generate economic benefits and jobs, but above all they are the most effective vehicle to introduce young people to sport: together with the Federation we want to encourage young people and children to go sailing, because in a seaside country like ours it should be taken for granted, as is skiing for those born in the mountains. We think in the long term: a major event is useful if it becomes cyclical, if it enters into the DNA of the city and of an international market that looks to Rome from Australia, from New Zealand, from Asia. Italy must create a system: not ask itself where to move the stage, but have the ambition to multiply it between Rome, Genoa and other seaside cities".