Should Team NZ get their clutches on the Auld Mug, Luna Rossa will play a large role in shaping the next event, with Sirena confirming his team will be challenger of record. There are no firm plans in place for what a future event might look like as Sirena said. Team NZ boss Grant Dalton "does not want to talk about the future until he has won in the present".
But the affable Italian is confident their visions will align on the important stuff.
"We had a brief discussion with them but obviously we want to help them focus on the America's Cup and then I'm sure we can find a good compromise between the two teams," said Sirena. "The main thing is we get the teams back and we get the sponsors back, we cannot have an America's Cup with only four teams again."
In the week since their challenge came to an end, Sirena has already been busily working to put together a strong team for the next event, wherever that might be. Traditionally, this has been the time in the Cup cycle when sailors jump ship, so to speak, as they look to secure their futures for the next event. This year is no different.
"The market is open now," said Sirena. "We will do a few changes, but obviously the idea is to implement them into the existing group. I will say the core of the group will keep going. Now is a little bit hard to make a call on timing until really the Cup is over."
One of his crew that isn't expected to return is British helmsman Chris Draper, who struggled in the match-racing environment. Draper had a mistake-riddled finals series and was often heard over the on-board microphones apologising to his team-mates. Draper said language difficulties posed a few problems on board and if he were to stay on at Luna Rossa he would make a real effort to learn Italian.
"There have been times on the boat when not necessarily emotions have been running high, but the situation has been slightly aroused and Italian kind of became the default language and I didn't know what the hell was going on."
