America's Cup: Alinghi confirms partnership with Red Bull Racing for 37th America's Cup

Brad Butterworth, Ernesto Bertarelli and Hans Peter Steinacher of Alinghi Red Bull Racing. Photo / Red Bull

Another Formula One team has entered the America's Cup realm.

Red Bull Racing have officially dipped their toes into the competition often referred to as 'F1 on water', linking up with Swiss syndicate Alinghi for the 37th edition of the Cup.

Alinghi made a major splash in the competition upon its arrival in 2003, taking the Auld Mug away from Team New Zealand in Auckland, beating the New Zealanders 5-0 to claim the trophy in their first attempt.

The syndicate then defended it in Valencia in 2007 – an event that drew 11 challengers – again beating Team New Zealand in the Cup match. The last venture into the America's Cup was in 2010, when they were dethroned by Oracle Team USA in a deed of gift match.

The challenging team for Alinghi's return to the arena, formally called Alinghi Red Bull Racing, was officially launched at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, last night, seeing the Swiss syndicate mount its first bid for the America's Cup in 11 years.

"Even though we stopped the Cup, we never stopped competing. We always had in mind that Alinghi would come back one day and over the years we continued to race fast boats...and fast foiling boats with a new generation of sailor – Swiss born," Alinghi team founder Ernesto Bertarelli said.

"Now, we're ready. We're ready for something very different, something very new, something fresh and something very exciting."

The partnership between Red Bull Racing and Alinghi is the second challenge to be comprised of minds from across sailing and motorsport, with challenger of record Ineos Britannia joining forces with Mercedes to mount their challenge, while it has also been suggested that Ferrari could link up with Italian syndicate Luna Rossa.

"We're going to take Formula One DNA, and we're going to use it within the boats," Red Bull Racing F1 team principal Christian Horner said.

"There's so much synergy between what we do on track and this kind of racing; I mean, we're going up against Mercedes and Ineos, and maybe Ferrari as well, so the competition spills over from the track and that's exciting."

It won't be Red Bull's first venture into sailing, as the Red Bull Extreme Sailing team have been competing on the GC32 Racing Tour - a European-based circuit contested in one-design foiling catamarans. The announcement comes off the back of Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen claiming the F1 Driver's Championship in dramatic fashion in Abu Dhabi at the weekend.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing is the first challenger outside of the challenger of record to confirm its campaign for the next edition of the Cup, after entries opened at the beginning of the month.