7 things we learned in the SailGP Abu Dhabi Grand Final

Great Britain arrived in Abu Dhabi as favourites on paper, tripped over their own shoelaces on Saturday, then came from the back of the three-boat Grand Final to win the race that mattered and collect their first ever SailGP championship title.

Here’s what the closing weekend of Season 5 told us…

Abu Dhabi showed that a change in rig spec and a drop in wind speed can promote different teams up the order faster than anyone expected.

The Danish team, usually a mid-pack presence, were suddenly the benchmark in marginal conditions. With the new 27.5m wing finally giving them speed in light air, Nicolai Sehested’s crew talked openly about a shift in their approach – less elbow-out brawling in the pack, more sailing fast enough to stay clear of trouble.

“We had good speed all day,” Sehested said after Day 1. “Normally in the light stuff we're fighting in the pack, but it all seemed to go well for us today.” After a wobbly opening race on Sunday, they picked up the pace again to take their first ever event win and an $800,000 payday.

The other standout performance of the weekend came from Red Bull Italy. New driver Phil Robertson was behind the wheel for the first time since Season 4, piecing together enough solid, unspectacular scores to finish second overall.

“To finish the season with a second with the team is pretty cool,” said Robertson. “It was quite scrappy out there and we finished mid pack a lot which doesn't feel great but look, it's points.”

Scrappy or not, the Italians leave with their first ever podium and a clear foundation for Season 6.

In breeze touching just six knots, even the TV helicopters became a performance variable.

More than one sailor pointed out how the boats would suddenly light up when a chopper came past. The downwash was strong enough to drag a ripple of breeze across the track. Tom Slingsby even joked about trying to “follow the helicopter” to hook into the disturbed air and ride it.

Spain arrived as defending champions with a nasty bit of arithmetic: finish the event three places clear of Australia or miss the Grand Final. Day 1 was a write-off: poor starts, traffic at every mark and last place on the overnight leaderboard while Denmark, Italy and Switzerland ran the show.

Sunday brought a proper charge. In key moments Spain climbed high enough to hit the live qualifying position, briefly turning the season on its head while Slingsby’s crew fought to salvage points from the back.

Ultimately they finished outside the top three in the event, missed the $2m race by a single season place and ended the year fourth overall behind Emirates GBR, Australia and New Zealand. It’s a rough lesson: you can enter the season as champions, sail well across a year and still see the title defence vanish inside one marginal, low-wind weekend.

“Fair enough the Aussies did what they had to do to maximise their chances, just making sure they were hurting us a little bit here and there,” Botín said on the dock. “I think we can, as a team, be very proud of how we dealt with the situation. Obviously a couple of big mistakes yesterday didn't give us the chance of entering the final. It’s been a big growing season for us and luckily we keep the same team for the next year to start the season in Perth.”

The $2m Grand Final race delivered exactly the kind of knife-edge decision SailGP is designed to expose. Australia won the start, foiled first, led at mark one and looked ready to run the table. New Zealand then hit their own lane and pushed into the lead up the next beat. All three boats led at some stage.

Then the entire season was distilled into one decision at the top of the course. Australia and New Zealand both chose the left-hand gate for their final downwind. Dylan Fletcher steered Emirates GBR around the opposite mark to the right. The British hooked into a gust the others never found to take a decisive lead, foiled past the shoreside grandstand and walked away with their first ever SailGP championship title.

Tom Slingsby admitted afterward it would “eat away at me for a long time.” Pete Burling said he'd considered the same right-turn option but decided to lock in on the left. Ten seconds of clean execution versus ten seconds of foil instability, and the difference was a season's work.

“This is our third opportunity [in a Grand Final]. I think we've won well over 50% of the finals we've been in but we still haven't managed to win a Grand Final,” Burling said. “So it’s incredibly hard how the whole season gets decided on one shifty 10-minute race.”

Fletcher's own framing afterward was telling: “If someone said you went into a lottery with a 33% chance of winning $2 million, you'd snap their hand off.”

But that begs the question…

Abu Dhabi delivered big crowds, clean TV pictures and the sponsorship muscle that keeps a global league afloat. It just didn’t deliver much wind.

Day 1 never climbed much above six knots. The fleet sailed with skeleton crews on one of the tightest tracks of the year. Penalties hit 27, the top four teams in the championship ended up at the bottom of the event leaderboard, and the whole show felt like slow-motion chess around tiny patches of pressure.

The Grand Final itself still produced a worthy champion. Emirates GBR had already won four events, topped the season standings and then had the nerve to make the boldest call in the deciding race. Even so, the title effectively came down to ten seconds of stability at one gate in air light enough to punish a single mis-timed tack.

SailGP will keep racing in the Middle East because the economics demand it. The question is whether a venue that regularly serves up non-foiling conditions should carry the deciding race. SailGP wants to sell itself as 50-knot grand prix sailing. Fans tuning into the $2m showdown in Abu Dhabi watched three of the world’s best crews nurse F50s through survival tacks, then saw the season resolved by a wind lottery that many simply switched off.

Eleven events with eight different winners, and twelve teams all capable of putting together a weekend that makes the rest of the fleet look ordinary. Season 5 has been the most open campaign in SailGP’s history, and next year looks set to raise the bar even further.

Artemis, representing Sweden, arrives as the 13th team with serious pedigree: Nathan Outteridge at the wheel, Iain Percy running the program, and deep pockets courtesy of billionaire Torbjörn Törnqvist. Outteridge knows these boats from his Season 1 and 2 stint with Japan. Meanwhile, Harry Melges joins Team USA to bring high-speed foiling experience to a struggling program. This injection of proven talent and roster reshuffles between seasons will only tighten the pack.

Abu Dhabi rewarded teams that could live in tiny boxes of pressure, minimise manoeuvres and stay calm while the boats sagged in and out of flight. The opening rounds of Season 6 flip that on its head. Perth’s Fremantle Doctor normally blows in the 20-25 knot range, with Slingsby confirming: “If you want excitement and drama and action, you're going to see it in Perth. I can guarantee that.”

The F50s will be lit up again, the course will stretch out and the game will go back to survival gybes, high-speed laylines and boat-handling at the edge of control.

Denmark rolls into Western Australia fresh off an event win, finally proving they can close out a weekend under pressure. Emirates GBR arrive as champions with a target on their backs. Spain lands with a chip on their shoulder and something to chase after coming agonisingly close to defending their title. New Zealand and Australia carry the particular sting of seeing a title in reach and slipping away in ten minutes of light-air chaos.

SailGP Season 6 kicks off on 17-18 January 2026, at the Oracle Perth Sail Grand Prix.