Sir Jim Ratcliffe sparked controversy in January when he dramatically removed Sir Ben Ainslie from his sailing team, but the four-time gold medalist has now spoken out.
Sir Ben Ainslie says he is ready to part ways with Sir Jim Ratcliffe after a long and acrimonious row. Ainslie was “surprised” to be cut short by Ineos for the next spot in sailing’s most prestigious event, the America’s Cup, which takes place in January.
Ineos Britannia have decided to part ways with Ainsley ahead of the 2027 America’s Cup, despite the legendary Olympian leading the team to the final in Barcelona last October. They became the first British team to reach the final in 60 years, but after losing 7-2 to a New Zealand team, Ratcliffe made a controversial decision.
The 73-year-old petrochemical billionaire, who also owns Manchester United and has a stake in the Mercedes F1 team, has severed ties with Ainsley following a bitter dispute. Four-time Olympic gold medalist Ainsley, who has been backed by Ineos since 2018, has announced his intention to change teams to Athena Racing and represent Great Britain in the next America’s Cup.
This resulted in a conflict with Ineos over which team owned the intellectual property. In the end, Ratcliffe was forced to withdraw from the legal battle, leaving Ainslie and Athena Racing to prepare for the next race off the coast of Naples in 2027.
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In an April statement, Ineos Britannia blamed Athena for having been unable to reach a “timely conclusion” due to “prolonged negotiations” and was “reluctantly” forced to withdraw. That strongly suggested there was a falling out between Ainsley and Ratcliffe, but speaking to The Times, the 48-year-old said he still plans to go out for drinks with his former sparring partner.
“I hope so,” he said. “We achieved a lot as a team and Jim and Ineos also played a big part in that. Obviously there’s a lot of interest in both sports and business, but personally we’ve always gotten along very well. So we’ll see.”
He added: “This (what led to the breakup with Ineos) is the world we live in. There’s a lot at stake and it’s tough to some extent. None of that is necessarily surprising and I’m still really proud of what we achieved at Barcelona.”
“We’ve had a great partnership and accomplished a lot together, but we’ve definitely moved forward. We’ve both moved forward. The IP that we developed together will be shared going forward. We have the IP on our side and they have the IP on their side. And there’s an agreement that both teams can take it forward in their respective areas if they want to.”
Athena Racing and Ainslie are currently looking to give Britain its first win since the America’s Cup began in 1851. However, Ainslie is now focused on leading the Emirates GBR team to victory in the Sail GP Championship.
Meanwhile, Ratcliffe has plenty of other things to do, with Manchester United looking to finalize plans to build a new stadium at Old Trafford. After finishing an embarrassing 15th place last season and losing to Tottenham in the Europa League final, United are now 10th in the Premier League after losing 1-0 to 10-man Everton on Monday.
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