Phil Robertson will not drive Spain’s F50 in San Francisco this weekend having officially left the team on Thursday.
Robertson, who was due to leave the Spanish team anyway at the end of Season 2 to join Canada, has departed early and will be replaced at the wheel by Barcelona native Jordi Xammar for the Mubadala United States Sail Grand Prix and all future events.
Kiwi Robertson drove the Chinese boat in Season 1 before his move to Spain for Season 2, and he has them in fourth place heading into this weekend’s Grand Final in San Francisco.
Speaking upon the announcement of Robertson’s departure from the team, Spain SailGP Team CEO María del Mar de Ros said: “The thing is that Phil, he feels he is superior in some sort of way, and that they [the crew] are kids. In fact, in one of the episodes [of Racing on the Edge] he was calling them ‘a bunch of kids’.
“Maybe if he felt more cohesion with the rest of the team, the decision would have been a bit different.
“We love having a Spanish team, because the purpose of the team has always been to develop youth, the sailing industry, and Spain.
“But, of course, we have to focus on performance as well, and this race is going to be a special one.”
Robertson, who will now watch this weekend’s Mubadala United States Sail Grand Prix from the sidelines, added: “We took this team from zero experience to somewhere near the top of the leaderboard, and unfortunately the team has decided that they want to focus on next year and move on.
“It’s sport at the end of the day, and you never want to write yourself off. But, unfortunately, this team wrote us off.”
