SailGP Team Spain
01
Days
23
Hours
55
Minutes
43
Seconds
- Official Team Name
- Los Gallos SailGP Team
- Team Nickname
- Los Gallos (The Roosters)
- Boat Name
- Victoria
- CEO
- Antonio (Tony) Alquézar
- Driver
- Diego Botin
- Key Crew:
- Florian Trittel (Wing Trimmer), Joel Rodriguez (Flight Controller), Joan Cardona (Grinder/Tactician), Bernardo Freitas (Grinder), Mateu Barber (Grinder) and Nicole van der Velden (Strategist)
- Coach
- Simone Salvà
- Ownership
- F50 League LLC (league-owned)
- Established:
- 2021 (Season 2 entry)
History in the league:
2021–23 – Debut as SailGP’s youngest squad in Season 2, branded as a “development” team with a succession of drivers (Phil Robertson, Jordi Xammar); finish last overall in Season 3.
February 2023 – Diego Botín steps into the driver’s role, with grinder Joel Rodríguez replacing him as flight controller.
June 2023 – Management reset ahead of Season 4 sees Tony Alquézar appointed CEO.
July 2023 – Claim first ever event win at the Oracle Los Angeles Sail Grand Prix.
July 2024 – Scrape into the Season 4 San Francisco Grand Final, then deliver a shock victory against Australia and New Zealand in the winner-takes-all showdown to lift Spain’s first SailGP title and end the Aussie dynasty.
Mid-2025 – Take back-to-back SailGP event wins in San Francisco and New York and lead the Season 5 standings into the European leg.
December 2025 – Finish Season 5 in fourth overall, just missing out on the winner-takes-all final.
One season. That's how long it took Diego Botín's Los Gallos to go from wooden spoon to world champions. Spain finished dead last in Season 3 – equipment failures, crew churn, development-team results – then won the whole thing twelve months later, toppling Tom Slingsby's three-time Aussie champions and Peter Burling's New Zealand in the Season 4 San Francisco Grand Final.
Season 5 brought the pressure that comes with defending a title. Early signs looked promising: back-to-back wins in San Francisco and New York established Spain as genuine contenders once again. Then came the wobble in the European leg. A combination of Joan Cardona's absence and cohesion issues saw results slide, and by Abu Dhabi the momentum had stalled. Spain became the team to beat in fleet racing – quite literally, as their Aussie rivals targeted them strategically – and missed the Grand Final entirely, finishing fourth overall.
At the centre of it all is the Botín-Florian Trittel partnership, fronting the youngest team in the league. Winning Olympic gold in the 49er at Paris 2024, followed by a 49er world title in 2025, the pair are standard-bearers for Spanish high-performance sailing. The whole operation runs out of Foiling Base Cádiz – a permanent training hub that picked up the 2025 Foiling Awards' pathway prize and anchors Spain as both elite contender and grassroots development engine.
While the team remains league-owned, CEO Alquézar is busy sounding out Spanish investors to buy the franchise at a valuation north of USD 50 million. The "Marea Roja" (red tide) fanbase packs the Cádiz waterfront for home events, and the team's youth-driven narrative – youngest squad, reigning Olympic champs, active pathway work – makes them one of SailGP's most marketable franchises.
Season 6 finds Los Gallos at a crossroads. The crew returns unchanged, betting that their proven chemistry and Olympic pedigree can recapture the magic that delivered the Season 4 championship. Proving that title was more than a fluke will require a consistency that eluded them through last year's late-season fade.
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