Sixteen months separate the La Roche-Posay Racing Team from the ultimate prize in Naples, and the French America's Cup challenge has never looked more purposeful. A major title partner, a sporting director with two Cup victories on his résumé, and a crew assembled from Olympic podiums, Youth America's Cup wins, and world championships — the campaign that began life under the K-Challenge banner has taken on a genuinely formidable shape.
The rebrand follows the announcement of La Roche-Posay as title partner. The world's leading dermatological skincare brand, part of the L'Oréal Group, brings both commercial weight and a clearly articulated sporting rationale to the arrangement. Alongside that news came the formal appointment of Philippe Presti as Sporting Director and the public unveiling of the elite crew that skipper Quentin Delapierre will lead into competition beginning in Cagliari this May.
The logic behind La Roche-Posay's involvement goes well beyond badge placement. The America's Cup has been a crucible for human and technological performance since 1851, and the AC75s that competitors race today take that to an extraordinary extreme. Foiling at spectacular speeds, sailors endure prolonged exposure to fierce sunlight, salt air, wind, and humidity while managing the intense physical demands of high-speed racing. Skin, as the body's outermost barrier, absorbs all of it.
For La Roche-Posay, which marked its 50th anniversary last year, that environment represents exactly the kind of proving ground that drives meaningful product development. The partnership creates a direct channel for real-world feedback from athletes operating under extreme conditions, feeding the development of a sports-focused repair range grounded in what actually happens on the water.
Alexandra Reni-Catherine, International General Manager of La Roche-Posay, captured the reasoning concisely: "I am delighted that La Roche-Posay is participating in the America's Cup, a legendary sailing race. We share with the French team values of innovation, collective performance, and the quest for excellence. It's very simple: if La Roche-Posay can protect and repair athletes' skin in extreme conditions, it can protect all skins, everywhere."
K-Challenge founder and co-CEO Stéphan Kandler was equally emphatic about what the partnership represents. "We are very proud and grateful to welcome La Roche-Posay as the title partner of our team," he said. "It is an iconic brand, driven by scientific rigor and a performance culture that naturally resonates with the spirit of K-Challenge. This commitment follows on from the support of the L'Oréal Group, which has been supporting our projects since 2023. We are delighted to take another step together in building our Challenge for the 38th America's Cup, a new version of the competition, in which we are doubly involved as founding members of the new governance."
Philippe Presti's America's Cup record needs little elaboration. Seven campaigns across three decades of international sailing at the highest level, with victories in 2010 and 2013. His name has a habit of appearing at the centre of winning programmes. Expanding on responsibilities he already held within K-Challenge, he now carries the title of Sporting Director across all K-Challenge sailing teams, including the La Roche-Posay Racing Team.
A multi-title winner at world and European level, Presti arrives at this French campaign with both deep experience and genuine personal investment in its success. "I have been fortunate to have many experiences within international teams," he said. "Today, I am particularly happy to share this adventure with a French team, and especially with this team with whom I have long maintained strong ties. The America's Cup is the ultimate expression of team sport, bringing together all the talent and expertise of our organisation. Today, we are presenting the sailors. The challenge will be to coordinate and unlock the potential of each individual in order to push our limits and aim for the highest level in Naples in 2027."
Presti works alongside fellow coach Philippe Mourniac, both men bringing strong reputations from the Olympic movement. The crew they have assembled covers an wide range of sailing cultures and competitive backgrounds.
Delapierre leads the group as skipper and one of the AC75's drivers. His path to this role has been methodical: Olympic experience, years of foiling accumulated across the Nacra 17 and the SailGP championship, and a campaign in the 37th America's Cup.
The sailors around him span an impressive breadth of disciplines. Franco-New Zealander Jason Saunders won the Youth America's Cup in 2013 and has since added competitive experience from the 37th edition of the Cup with the French team and time on the SailGP circuit, developing the precise trimming skills that high-performance AC racing demands. Briton Leigh McMillan brings Tornado class world and Olympic honours, extensive SailGP experience, and multiple America's Cup campaigns with the British challenge team, who won the last Louis Vuitton Cup and reached the final of the 37th America's Cup. Timothé Lapauw competed in the Youth America's Cup in Bermuda in 2017 before joining the French challenger team during the 2024 campaign.
The Franco-Spanish pairing of Diego Botín and Florian Trittel brings a particular kind of credibility to the group. Both are Olympic champions in the 49er class from the Paris 2024 Games, their tactical sharpness and competitive discipline forged at the very summit of Olympic sailing.
Enzo Balanger arrives from the K-Challenge Academy, having skippered the Youth team in 2024 before recently claiming the Moth foiling world championship, becoming the first Frenchman ever to win that demanding class. Bruno Mourniac, SB20 world champion and two-time winner of the Tour de France à la Voile, contributes depth drawn from the professional multihull circuit. Amélie Grassi's versatility across multiple platforms brings the adaptability that sailing an AC75 at its limits requires.
A second woman from the K-Challenge Academy will also join the squad, with the selection process already under way. Presti explained the approach: "In France, we have a pool of female talent. We have just completed the final phase of recruitment for the 2026-2027 K-Challenge Academy class. The nine selected women will train on simulators and AC40s in preparation for the 2027 Women's America's Cup. Over the coming months and training sessions, we will determine which one will join the existing team on the AC75, based on each woman's performance."
Delapierre, reflecting on the crew he now leads, spoke about what sets its composition apart. "When you look at this crew, you immediately see the richness and diversity of their backgrounds. It's quite rare to have so many different sailing cultures within the same group. Each member brings their own expertise: the tactical precision of Olympic classes, mastery of foiling boats, management of extreme situations, or long-distance sailing. When you put all that together, it creates a very stimulating environment where everyone raises the bar. For me, the real strength of this team is its combination of experience, youth, and complementary skills. We've brought together sailors capable of performing at very high speeds while maintaining a collective vision of the race. Our team will have to work incredibly hard to always be at our peak and keep pace with the fierce competition."
Behind the sailors stands a technical team of more than 60 people. Antoine Carraz leads the group, with David Gautier heading electronics and mechatronics, Benjamin Vernières overseeing appendage design, and Owen David responsible for hydraulic design. Recent additions to the technical roster include Lucas Delcourt as head of performance and Mickey Ickert, a world-renowned sail designer and three-time America's Cup winner.
Bruno Dubois, co-CEO of K-Challenge, offered his assessment of where the organisation now finds itself. "Today, Stephan and I are exactly where we wanted to be according to our five-year vision: K-Challenge is a sustainable organisation that didn't stop after the 37th America's Cup. We were able to retain our core team and attract others to join us. As I am specifically in charge of the sporting side of things, I am very happy to see this group of highly complementary sailors together, and I am certain that under the guidance of the two Philippes they will work in an environment conducive to progress."
The 38th America's Cup Final Match opens in Naples on 10 July 2027, preceded by Louis Vuitton Cup qualifying rounds in spring of that year. Before either of those, the competing teams will contest fleet races in preliminary regattas sailed on AC40s. The first of those regattas takes place in Cagliari, Sardinia, from 21 to 24 May this year.
Preparation is already in motion. Presti laid out the schedule in detail: "We are starting our first training session today on simulators and on the AC40 in preparation for the Cagliari event. A second session will take place after SailGP Rio in late April and early May. After Cagliari, we'll move on to sailing off Lorient aboard our AC75 prototype which is currently being optimised. We'll spend the summer in Brittany in conditions similar to what we might experience in the Bay of Naples in the spring of 2027. The plan is then to base the team in Italy from this September until July 2027."
From Lorient, K-Challenge's home port, through a summer of training in Brittany, to a permanent Italian base from September, every session between now and July 2027 is directed toward a single objective: arriving in Naples as a team capable of competing for the Cup itself.
The La Roche-Posay Racing Team sailing crew: Quentin Delapierre (FRA) — Skipper / Driver Diego Botín (ESP/FRA) — Driver Enzo Balanger (FRA) — Driver Jason Saunders (NZL) — Trimmer Florian Trittel (ESP) — Trimmer Leigh McMillan (GBR) — Trimmer Bruno Mourniac (FRA) — Trimmer Tim Lapauw (FRA) — Trimmer Amélie Grassi (FRA) — Trimmer
