What has happened has happened. Jimmy Spithill is focused on what comes next for his Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team in their bid to relieve Team New Zealand of the America’s Cup.
It was a stance the Luna Rossa helmsman made abundantly clear one day out from the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals.
Spithill and his crew will meet American Magic in the best-of-nine knockout series after Ineos Britannia chose to go up against Alinghi Red Bull Racing. It was a decision afforded to the British team by their top-ranked finish in the round-robin stage of the challenger series – beating Luna Rossa in a tiebreaking race to secure the advantage.
It was a position they might not have been in had Luna Rossa’s AC75 been working as it should on the final day of the round-robins, with the Italians having to essentially forfeit their last race against Alinghi, who were the lowest-ranked qualifier for the semifinals, due to an issue with their boat. A win in that race would have locked the top seed up for Spithill and his crew.
The Cup veteran lamented some issues teams were having with some of the one-design componentry supplied for this generation of AC75s after that race but has since put that behind him with the semifinals on the horizon.