"It’s about a winning culture." Martin Whitmarsh, CEO of Land Rover BAR Our Coverage Sponsored by Table D’Hote
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Martin Whitmarsh, the CEO of Land Rover BAR, reflects on creating a winning culture and creating a team capable of winning the America’s Cup for Britain for the first time in 165-years.
Whitmarsh, the former CEO of McLaren Racing, joined Ben Ainslie last year in a bid to bring the oldest trophy in international sport back to Britain.
He spoke to americascup.com moments after his team secured a win in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series, which gives Land Rover BAR two bonus points to carry into the next stage of the event, the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers.
“The sailors have done a fantastic job. The team has worked so hard. Today has been tricky and to win that is just fantastic,” he said.
“They were fighting all the way through. Through this Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series we’ve had some bad starts but the team is confident in its speed and they’re able to recover. I think they’ll be very, very happy with themselves.”
Whitmarsh says the victory is a proof point for his squad, an important sign that the team is on the right track.
“We’re a new team and it’s a technically complex sport. You’re up against some great teams. ORACLE TEAM USA and Artemis Racing have been around for a long time. The French are a very experienced crew. So to come into this and try to win – it’s hard…
“It’s about a winning culture. If you set out to win everything then you build on that. The team is expecting to get through the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers – we may not – but that is what we’re expecting to do.”
Whitmarsh says skipper Ben Ainslie sets the tone for the team. “I think the winners, you can see the intensity in them. I’d met Ben a few times and been struck by his humility, his intelligence and he’s a very nice guy – on dry land... He’s not always so lovely on the water! You can sense that will to win and that intensity. It’s nice to be around that.”
The next step for the team is to translate success in the one design racing of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series into the design contest of the racing next year in the America’s Cup Class boats each team must design and build. But Whitmarsh says this result shows the sailing team has what takes.
“What we’ve proved in this Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series is that if we give them a competitive boat, the sailors are good enough to out and win the America’s Cup.” Whitmarsh says part of the attraction of the America’s Cup for him is the opportunity the event provides.
“This is a fast, dynamic, televisual and exciting sport. We can grow something commercially here,” he says. “We’ve got a team of about 120 people. In sailing terms that’s a big team. But for a technology business that’s tiny. But we’re already acquiring the process, discipline, the analysis and simulation that bigger F1 teams have had for the last 20 years.
“As a nation we’ve been the kings of F1, of motorsport. Now that sailing has become this technical, we have to make sure that our nation – after 165 years – wins this America’s Cup. And I think we want to rule the waves and become the most technologically advanced sail racing team in the world.”
Next up is the move to Bermuda.
“We’ve delivered our first development boat to Bermuda this week,” he says. “The race boat is being built in Portsmouth and in a few weeks time that goes out there. Before Christmas the sailors will be out and start to test in the Great Sound, and in January we’ll have the race boat and we’ll be out two boat testing.”
Whitmarsh says Portsmouth will remain the technology hub. The mission in Portsmouth is to find the incremental improvements while the sailors hone their techniques.
“The ultimate race will be to sail the race dry, keep the hulls dry,” he says. “It may happen. It’s difficult, but that’s the goal.
“This is going to be technically the most interesting America’s Cup there has every been.”
