Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli sailors and World Rally drivers together for two days
The world of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team sailors and World Rally Championship drivers met in April 2024, in Cagliari to give life to a festival of sport and speed. Uniting the two dimensions of challenges on the roughest gravel tracks and the most impetuous waves is not only Pirelli, which organised the event as co-title sponsor of Luna Rossa and sole supplier to the WRC, but also the use of the most avant-garde technologies applied to competition and, of course, the passion for challenges. The exchange of skills and points of view between the worlds of sailing and motor racing took place with an experience as co-drivers of the WRC1 Hyundai i20N and Toyota Yaris GR cars for the sailors and in a sea training session on board the AC40 for the drivers. The AC40 is the boat in which the sailors raced last year in the Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova i la Gertrù (Spain) and Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). Provided for in the 37th America's Cup Rules and a shortened version of the AC75 (official Cup boat), it is capable of reaching speeds of over 80 km/h and will also be used by the youth and women's crews for the Youth & Women's America's Cup scheduled for this summer in Barcelona.
There were two bases for the double training: that of the Luna Rossa team in Cagliari and the woods of Capoterra, near the Sardinian capital, from where the cars set off on a special stage that was both winding and fast, worthy of a world rally.
The protagonists of the exchange were for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Max Sirena (Team Director and Skipper) and Gilberto Nobili (Operations Manager & Mechatronic Coordinator), Marco Gradoni, Checco Bruni, Ruggero Tita (three of the sailing team's helmsmen), Shannon Falcone (On-Water Fleet & Safety Manager) and Rocco Falcone (Youth America's Cup sailor), while the WRC drivers included eight-time World Rally Champion and Toyota driver Sebastien Ogier, Hyundai's Thierry Neuville and Ford's Grégoire Munster. They were joined by Lorenzo Bertelli, in his Yaris GR Rallly1, as passionate sailor and Fuckmatiè team driver.
"They seem like two extremely distant worlds, but in reality they are united by the essentials: performance combined with control, research, technological innovation, strategy, team spirit and communication, and the ability to adapt. And, of course, the conscious and responsible adrenaline, given by sailing at over 50 knots, for Luna Rossa, and driving at unimaginable speeds along narrow roads between a thousand obstacles, for the World Rally Championship cars," were the comments of the protagonists who exchanged impressions and experiences.
The two days ended with the pilots visiting Luna Rossa's base. "Let's do it again soon and come visit us" were the words that sailors and pilots exchanged in greeting. Confirming that two worlds seemingly so distant from each other have much to say to each other and have every desire to do so.
