Emirates GBR has secured the 2025 SailGP Season Championship after winning the final race in Abu Dhabi against Australia and New Zealand.
The three teams exchanged the lead during Sunday’s race (30 November 2025), which concluded with Emirates GBR moving from third place to pass Australia’s Bonds Flying Roos and New Zealand’s Black Foils on the fourth leg of the final.
The result marks the first time Emirates GBR has won a SailGP grand final. It is also the first team to complete a clean sweep in the championship by taking the 2025 Season grand final, the Impact League and finishing top of the season standings on points. The team earns $2m for the grand final win, $400,000 for finishing first in the season standings and $57,000 for education charity 1851 Trust, through its Impact League performance.
“It was an unbelievable final and an unbelievable season for the team,” says Emirates GBR driver Dylan Fletcher. “We had some ups and downs, but we dug deep and finished off the season with the treble, winning the grand final, the overall season on points and the Impact League. I think the grand final race is an incredible testament to how the team operates, we stayed calm, kept chipping away and then took the opportunity when it got presented to us. What a team, what a year… I’m stoked.”
Emirates GBR CEO Ben Ainslie adds: “I’m so proud of this team. On and off the water this season, the team has just delivered and this is such a great day. The racing at this level we know is incredibly tight but they really deserved it. It was a classic final, the Aussies had the lead off the line but we made some really smart choices which won us the race. It’s a serious achievement.”
Emirates GBR strategist Hannah Mills characterised the deciding race as “wild and tense”. She says: “We knew it was going to come down to the wire, and we knew even if we did start last, there was always a chance to keep doing the right thing, keep putting the boat in the right place and wait for the other to make mistakes, and luckily we managed to do that and came good in the end. I literally can’t believe it.”
The season included three event wins, 12 race wins and 30 podium finishes for Emirates GBR. Fletcher joined the line-up at the start of the season, contributing to results on the water, while the team also won the Impact League — awarded for social outreach and environmental efforts — for the second consecutive year.
Conditions in Abu Dhabi were light throughout the weekend. Crew numbers were reduced from six to three on Saturday for four races, then increased to four for Sunday. Alongside Fletcher on the F50 in the final were Mills as strategist, Luke Parkinson as flight controller and Iain Jensen as wing trimmer. Grinders Nick Hutton and Neil Hunter supported from the team’s boat.
The final marks the end of the 2025 season, with the next season starting on 17 and 18 January 2026 with SailGP’s first event in Perth, Western Australia.
The Rolex SailGP Championship, co-founded by Larry Ellison and Sir Russell Coutts in 2018, is an annual international series held in major cities. Teams compete in identical 50ft foiling catamarans that can exceed 60 miles per hour.
SailGP has attracted interest from A-list names in recent years, including Hollywood icon Anne Hathaway — who has invested in the Red Bull Italy SailGP team — and French football superstar Kylian Mbappé, who has invested in the France SailGP Team.
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