Motor racing powerhouses Ferrari making a venture into offshore sailing

Marco Guglielmo Ribigini, project leader of Ferrari Hypersail, speaking during a presentation of the project at their Maranello headquarters on June 25, 2025. PHOTO: FERRARI

Kimberly Kwek

UPDATED Jun 26, 2025, 01:21 AM

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MARANELLO, Modena – After decades as a powerhouse on the racetrack, Ferrari are now turning their attention to the ocean.

The most successful team in Formula One history, with 16 constructors’ and 15 drivers’ championships to their name, officially announced their entry into offshore sailing on June 25 with the launch of the Ferrari Hypersail Project, unveiled during a press conference at their Maranello headquarters in Italy.

At the heart of the initiative is a 100-foot (30.5-metre) flying ocean racing monohull, currently under construction and expected to launch in 2026.

Leading the project is team principalGiovanni Soldini, a veteran Italian sailor with more than 30 years of experience in solo and crewed ocean racing. His achievements include multiple records and two solo round-the-world races.

The yacht’s design is being overseen by Guillaume Verdier, a renowned French naval architect known for his role in developing the flying monohull used by Team New Zealand to win the 2021 America’s Cup.

Ferrari chairman John Elkann described the new venture, which draws inspiration from its 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning Hypercar, as both a technical and cultural evolution for the company.

He said: “I wanted to see Ferrari embracing a new challenge – the sea and sky. We wanted to defy the odds, defy an environment that we did not know very well, with natural challenges that we needed to counteract with design.”

While Ferrari has competed in Formula One since the sport’s inception in 1950 – making it the oldest team on the grid – it is not the first motor racing outfit to explore sailing.

At the 2024 America’s Cup, three of the six challengers had links to Formula One teams – Switzerland’s Alinghi collaborated with Red Bull Racing, France’s Orient Express Racing partnered with Alpine, and Ineos Britannia shared a 50-50 partnership with Mercedes, with the latter leading the campaign’s technical programme.

Ferrari’s entry differs in scale and structure. The new monohull, at 100 feet, is significantly larger than the 75-foot AC75 foiling monohulls used in the America’s Cup, which are designed for short-course, inshore racing.

When asked if the America’s Cup had been excluded from this project, Elkann said: “This is much more exciting than the America’s Cup.

“There are no rules which makes it much more difficult to try and push the limits of the possible and that’s what is really exciting and in some ways, the America’s Cup is constraining.”

The yacht will sail with a flight control system developed from the expertise acquired in Ferrari’s automotive sector – employing aerodynamic and structural calculation processes designed to ensure performance and safety for a monohull that will soar across the ocean for extended periods – with no stopovers, no pit stops and no external support of any kind.

In line with Ferrari’s sustainability objectives, the vessel will be entirely energy self-sufficient, operating exclusively on renewable energy, including solar, wind and kinetic sources.

There will be no combustion engine on board. All power required to operate the yacht’s systems – ranging from motion control of foils, keel and rudder to onboard navigation and computing – must be generated autonomously while under sail.

Soldini described the initiative as an opportunity to break new ground in both design and performance.

He said: “This is a very exciting project – it’s about innovation, performance, but also reliability and maybe endurance. But with endurance, there’s also energetic independence.

“This boat should be for sure fast, but should first of all be able to go to the other side of the ocean and to do that, a lot of energy is needed, and to keep the boat light, we will produce the energy on board.”

Asked about whether there was interest in competing for the Jules Verne Trophy, a prize for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions on the size of the crew, Soldini said the priority was to complete the yacht.

He added: “Before any kind of sporting goal, we want to wrap up the project – so finish up the design of our racing monohull, test that, and see what we can and can’t do and then we will see about the sport challenges. But yes, it is a racing boat, so of course, we will race.”

Kimberly Kwek joined The Straits Times in 2019 as a sports journalist and has since covered a wide array of sports, including golf and sailing.

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