00:30Psychologically, Stevie, do you think that Contant Deli Pierre and the crew have kind of got the monkey off the back now and they know they can win or do you think they're still kind of battling with thinking too much about some things and rather than just going out and sailing?
00:41I think they've known they can win for a while. I think they're probably quite aware that they can be a bit inconsistent. A lot of their inconsistency this year has not necessarily been their fault. They haven't been at a few events. They had an issue with a wing at Portsmouth, of course.
00:53So they've been held back a bit. I think what they've done a really good job of in terms of where he's improved is the whole fleet has got a lot more regimented with their starting strategies.
01:05So everyone's got all this data, they're analysing everyone else and I almost feel like the whole fleet's become a little bit sort of systematic.
01:13Robotic.
01:13Yeah, a bit robotic and Contant has just gone, right, if there's a robot around, I'm going full analogue, you know, and he is a little bit fast and loose in the pre-start and he's making it work, which I think is maybe a bit more doable now that everyone else is so systematic, which I think, you know, is something for them to all consider.
01:29What he's also done is often the French, when they would be on the course, they would like space.
01:35And if they had space, they could sail what we call in sailing a fast mode.
01:38So they'd be sort of quite low, quite fast, ripping around the course.
01:42And if they had space, they could make it work.
01:43But when they're in a tight position, that normally means you lose the position if you're sailing like that.
01:49So I think they've worked a bit harder on being able to actually hold a high lane and sail in the congested areas.
01:55I think the standout reason for Australia and New Zealand being the top two boats in the fleet is how they overtake back through the fleet.
02:03And Contant and the team have, I believe, improved that a lot.
02:06So when they're in the pack, it does feel like they'll move forward.
02:09Whereas last season, it felt like, you know, yeah, if they get a bit of luck, they'll go forward, but they could easily go back, you know, whereas now they've got that ability to move up.
02:18So I think monkeys off the back.
02:20However, as Hannah said, yeah, they won in Germany.
02:22That was amazing.
02:23But who was in the final?
02:25Australia, Great Britain, and then fourth was New Zealand.
02:28So they didn't actually make many points back on the boats they need to in that chase for the grand final.
02:32And I think we had a meeting yesterday and we were talking numbers.
02:35Your specialized subject, obviously, Todd Mathematics.
02:37And it was like two and a half points per event.
02:41They've got to claw back on Great Britain to have a hope and make grand final.
02:44So, yes, great in Germany.
02:47Pressure's back on, though, Contant home fans.
02:49But they also, they've got to get points.
02:50This is called Three Big Questions, the podcast, which I'm prone to do, is add another question.
02:54So I'm going to make this question 1A.
02:56Stevie, so we talk about France now.
02:58You talk about Contant Delapierre and how he can be a little bit rogue in the start box.
03:02He does love the big breeze.
03:03And with the Mistral coming in now, how do you think the French will fare on home waters with that big breeze?
03:08Yeah, I think the French are brilliant in the big breeze.
03:11And, you know, we're potentially going to have the new high-speed rudders on here.
03:14We'll see if that works out.
03:15I mean, he did lose in Germany his speed record in SailGP.
03:19So will he be chasing that, Hannah?
03:20Probably.
03:21But, yeah, I think they'll feel confident.
03:23They're sailing well and they're doing a good job.
03:25The problem they've got is, at the moment, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and Spain aren't making a lot of mistakes either.
03:31France and big wins, how do they do?
03:33Yeah, I mean, definitely their preferred conditions.
03:35And I think we heard Contant say after the last event that, you know, previously they've been stuck a little bit in working out some of the detail and needed to look at that big picture again.
03:43So, as Stevie said, the starts have really changed and evolved the way the fleet's lining up.
03:47So it's really hard to try and match other people's style.
03:50And if, you know, with all of the data that's available to the teams, there is so much information out there.
03:55But you've got to keep an essence of kind of your own identity within your team.
03:59Sometimes if you're trying to copy and pick up from other people, then it's really easy just to become kind of the same as them but a couple of steps behind.
04:04So I think they must have been working really hard at kind of working out what their strengths are and how they make sure that they're putting them forward and working on those areas of weakness while keeping the bigger picture.
04:13Because the racing is so fast, especially in these high wind conditions, which they're kind of really happy and comfortable in.
04:19But you've got to be really able to adjust to the conditions, make decisions really, really quickly.
04:24And as soon as you start to try and become like the other teams, you kind of lose that flair a little bit.
04:28So hopefully we'll see this weekend, you know, some of the teams pushing for that speed record.
04:32Again, it should be nice flat water with the windy conditions coming offshore, nice flat water.
04:36But again, you know, no room for error, especially for the French with the points they've got to catch up.
04:41Question number two, then.
04:42What will be the incidents that we saw in Sassnitz?
04:45How much of a lingering effect do you think they'll have on France and on Brazil?
04:48And there's a couple of other teams out there that have had incidents over the course of the last three events.
04:53How much do you think those hang on to them for this event?
04:56I mean, you know, we saw the French have that incident on Friday with their rudder and they managed to turn it around and come out as event winners.
05:02So a really good job for them to turn it around.
05:04I think easier said than done.
05:06Don't kind of underestimate how hard it is, especially with Brazil.
05:09Like that was a huge incident for them.
05:11The tech team has obviously done an incredible job with the tight timeline to get the boat back to the UK,
05:17get it all fixed and then for it to be ready to be raced in Saint-Tropez is unbelievable.
05:21The effort from all of those guys is really amazing.
05:24But they're going to have to put those demons behind them because in these kinds of boats,
05:28you cannot afford to be thinking about what's happened in the past.
05:30You have to be really present in the moment.
05:32And that is so much easier said than done.
05:34We're going to have now the new high speed, you know, and light wind rudder elevators,
05:40which should give us better performance, but also better safety.
05:42Because, you know, when you start going really fast on the old foils, you get what's called cavitation,
05:48which effectively is air around the foils.
05:50And so that's where they get that juddering effect, the whole thing shaking.
05:54And it's just obviously if there's air around a foil, that's not good news for control.
05:57So there's a lot less control on Brazil.
06:00Yeah, I mean, I agree with Hannah.
06:01I mean, that would have been the scary one, I think, for me.
06:03That was quite scary.
06:05Now, I know Brazil will be able to go away and look at it and say,
06:09there's some things we could have done differently.
06:10There's more safety measures been put into the software on board the boats
06:14in terms of the load that can go in when new boards go down
06:17and the torsional effects that has on the whole platform.
06:20So everyone's seen things, learned things, and we'll be able to feel,
06:24OK, there is a difference now that we can go on.
06:26But, yeah, the first day when you get back out on that boat
06:28and it starts doing, you know, 100 kilometers an hour again,
06:31it starts shaking a bit.
06:32You imagine there's going to be a few other things shaking.
06:34Question number three.
06:35As we look to this event this weekend in Saint-Tropez, it's a quick turnaround.
06:39It's back-to-back once again.
06:40We saw that in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
06:42This time it's going to be Saint-Tropez and Geneva.
06:43So not a great distance to travel.
06:45Do you think the approach changes knowing that there's back-to-back events for the teams?
06:49I don't think it can because, you know, each race is weighted equally.
06:53So you've got to go and attack each one of those races as though, you know,
06:56that's the most important thing in that moment because all those points are carried forward
07:00in exactly the same way.
07:01But I think, you know, it is easy and we did see it in LA and San Francisco.
07:04The teams that did well at the first of those two back-to-back events
07:07then generally kind of carried on and had a better event for the second event in San Francisco.
07:11So while the two venues are pretty different in terms of what we can expect with conditions,
07:16I think that it's really important to have a good first event of these double headers
07:21because that just makes the kind of transition to the new venue next weekend so much easier.
07:26Otherwise, you know, it's not just the kind of technical debriefs that you're having.
07:29It's how do you keep that team morale up to the point where you can perform on the second weekend.
07:33But Stevie, to Hannah's point, we're talking about heavy winds in Mistral in France this weekend
07:37and then very calm winds as you experienced a couple weeks ago in Geneva.
07:41Does that change your approach?
07:42Do you go all in for this event and then roll the dice not knowing what you're going to get in Geneva?
07:47I don't think.
07:48I think the standard's too high to be playing your cards.
07:51I think the interest, the boats where I think there's a really interesting question is Australia and the black foils, you know.
07:57So Bonds Flying Roos, the black foils, they got a little jump.
08:01You know, perhaps they're already thinking, you know, I mean, I don't think they're maybe quite arrogant enough to be thinking,
08:07OK, we're in the final, but I think they're probably thinking, OK, it's ours to throw away here.
08:12I think it's more of an interesting question for them.
08:15You know, do they play a bit conservative and then suddenly find themselves in the fight or do they go all out?
08:21Of course, they've still got good old chief umpire Craig with his penalty points.
08:24If there are incidents, we've seen that you can rack up penalty points pretty quickly.
08:28So you've got to be sort of, you know, juggling that game a bit.
08:31I think for Emirates, Great Britain, for the Spanish, you know, they're probably a bit too much of a fight to be able to back off a bit.
08:38And then France and Canada, well, it's all out attack.
08:40You know, so I think for most of the teams, they've got to go full on.
08:44I think Australia and New Zealand, potentially an interesting thing to think about.
08:48But, you know, there is prize money at all these events.
08:49So I doubt many of them will be backing off too much.
08:51We've got to remember, we're down to the final four events.
08:53We've got Saint-Tropez, then we have Geneva, then it's off to Cadiz in Spain, and then the wrap-up in late November, Abu Dhabi.
08:59So, best part of the three questions podcast is all about predictions.
09:04And for that, I turn to Hannah first.
09:05Ladies first, who do you like in this one?
09:07Give me your top three.
09:09Yeah, and it's getting tougher and tougher each event.
09:11We do this, I think.
09:12So I'm going to put Spain putting a comeback this event, making the top three.
09:15And then I think we can't, if there's going to be breeze, like tomorrow looks like we've got a great breeze forecast.
09:21So we can't count out Bonds Flying Roos and New Zealand.
09:25Okay.
09:26Stevie?
09:26It feels a little boring, doesn't it?
09:29I think the French will be in the final again.
09:32I think home turf, motivated, full of confidence, likes the breeze.
09:39I think the French, you know, are going to be feeling it and fired up.
09:43So I'm going to put the French in the final.
09:46Anyone could get it.
09:46I think, I agree with Hannah that I think it'll be Australia and New Zealand will be the other two boats in the final.
09:50That feels very boring, so I'm sorry about that.
09:52However, she will, you know, she will brag over me if she's right and I'm wrong.
09:57So I've got to make what I think is the right decision.
09:59So who's going to win the whole thing?
10:00Who's going to win the whole thing?
10:02I think the Bonds Flying Roos are going to do it this year.
10:03It's so tough this far out, but yeah, I think we haven't seen the best of them in the last few events,
10:13but I think it's pretty hard to count them out in the ground final.
10:15They're the fastest.
10:16At the moment, if you look at the stats, Australia are sailing around the course fastest.
10:20Tom's not doing as good a job as he was early season in the starts, but get to a three-boat final.
10:25There's going to be space.
10:26They've got the boat speed, steady a breeze.
10:29That's why I feel at the moment they've just got a slight boat speed edge on the other people in the fleet,
10:34and boat speed makes you a tactical genius.
10:36You talk about my expertise in mathematics.
10:38All I have to do is look at the numbers, Stevie.
10:40They won the first three seasons, and in season four, they finished in second.
10:43So they've never finished out of the top three, so I think the Bonds Flying Roos is the good call.
10:47We are getting you all ready.
10:48Three big questions as we get set to go racing.
10:51Rockwell, France, Sale Grand Prix, Saint-Tropez, part of the Rolex Sale GP Championships.
10:56For Stevie Morrison and Hannah Diamond, I'm Todd Harris.
10:57Enjoy the racing, and we'll see you afterwards.
