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America's Cup, Luna Rossa accelerates towards Naples. The challenge is also taking place off the water.
Italy’s sporting scene has broken many taboos. One of the few remaining is that of winning the America’s Cup, which will be held in the friendly waters of the Bay of Naples in the summer of 2027. Meanwhile, over the weekend in Cagliari, Luna Rossa – the Italian team – regained its public following by beating New Zealand in the America’s Cup preliminaries and, more importantly, showed how far sailing has become a technologically advanced laboratory, increasingly close to the world of high-performance cars and aerodynamics.
Over 800 spectator boats followed the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup preliminary regattas in the Bay of Angels. This was an important insight into an event still far from the real America’s Cup, but already sufficient to understand the level of attention surrounding the Italian team. “Cagliari responded very well,” said Max Sirena, team principal of Luna Rossa. “We’re home from 2014. Today, 127 people are working here, and we’ll be around 150 in Naples.”
For Sirena, the challenge is not just sporting. “The America’s Cup is the technological top. And it’s mainly a challenge between nations.” For this reason, Luna Rossa continues to strengthen its collaboration with Italian partners, in a structure that today includes over fifty technicians dedicated exclusively to development.
Behind the regattas there is a world of simulations, composite materials, software, aerodynamic analyses and artificial intelligence. The new foiling boats navigate at speeds of 55 knots and, when they rise above the water, the wet surface is reduced to just a few square meters. The rest is air, flows and the management of efficiency – bread and butter for engineers working in motorsport.
“The fastest boat always wins,” explains Alessandro Franceschetti, head of Luna Rossa’s structural department. “The human aspect remains fundamental, but today the differences are in the details and in the interpretation of the gray areas of the regulations.”
And it’s here that the increasingly close link with motorsport comes into play. For three editions, Luna Rossa has collaborated with Pirelli on the development of composite materials and the study of aerodynamic flows. This is a less visible technological transfer than motors or electronics, but it is decisive.
“The common ground is the science of materials,” explains Franceschetti. “Carbon fiber, synthetic resins, polymeric materials: Pirelli’s experience is fundamental.” The logic, in the end, is similar. A tire must maximize performance and efficiency on a limited surface. A foiling boat does something not too different on the water.
Aerodynamics has also now taken on a central weight. “Air is our fuel,” says Franceschetti. “With the foils, speeds have increased enormously, and it requires skills that come from the world of high-performance cars. Today’s boats are very hi-tech and require enormous management capabilities, even on the simulator.”
Not surprisingly, many technicians move from one sector to another, from one team to another. Max Sirena proudly champions this: “Luna Rossa has trained a generation of engineers who have then been taken by other teams. Today we find them everywhere. That means we work well.”
However, technology alone is not enough. In Cagliari, where all the boats were identical (AC40, a reduced monotype class compared to the AC75 which will compete in Naples), the human factor made the difference. And the future of the Cup also passes through here: increasingly young crews (“we have so many strong guys,” says Sirena), increasing use of artificial intelligence and mixed male-female teams. From 2027, it will be mandatory to have at least one woman on board in America’s Cup regattas.
Naples will be the next key step. Luna Rossa will progressively transfer its activities there as soon as the new base is ready, presumably with the new year, as it’s slightly behind schedule. Sirena knows well that racing at home will increase pressure and expectations: “In 2021 in Auckland we were close to winning. Then we got back to work with our heads down. Patrizio Bertelli has no business objectives: he wants to win the America’s Cup. And we do too.”
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Ferro Candilera