Ineos announces split with Ben Ainslie as it confirms America’s Cup entry

Ineos has announced that it has split with Ben Ainslie in an end to the two parties’ America’s Cup partnership.

Reports had emerged of a breakdown in the relationship between Ainslie and Sir Jim Ratcliffe just three months after their boat became the first British boat to contest the competition in 60 years.

And it is now confirmed that Ratcliffe and Ainslie failed to find an agreement on terms as they planned ahead for the next event, which could be as far away as 2027.

Ratcliffe had previously made it known that he did not want Ineos to be the sole sponsor for the 38th edition. The Manchester United co-owner has already spent around £200m in funding two bids at the America’s Cup trophy, including last October’s edition in Barcelona.

And now Ineos have confirmed that they will “enter a challenge for the 38th America’s Cup under the team name INEOS Britannia” after parting ways with Ainslie.

In a statement released on Thursday (23 January), Ineos said that the Ineos Britannia team “has appointed Dave Endean as CEO”, and “will also continue to leverage the design and technology expertise of the Mercedes F1 Team under the guidance of Technical Director, James Allison”.

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In addition, Ratcliffe said that he is “enormously proud of what we achieved in Barcelona in developing a British boat that was truly competitive for the first time in decades”.

“It set new benchmarks for British sailing, including winning the Louis Vuitton Cup for the first time, and taking races off the Defender in the finals for the first time in 90 years,” he added.

“We will now build upon this for the 38th America’s Cup through the INEOS challenge and already have 100 scientists and engineers working on the design of our AC38 yacht. More details on the INEOS Britannia challenge will follow in due course.”