-
CHALLENGERLa Roche-Posay Racing Team
With a team base in Lorient, in north-west France, K-Challenge will compete at the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup under the name of La Roche-Posay Racing Team having secured support from the dermatological skincare brand under the L’Oréal umbrella.
Stéphan Kandler, CEO of K-Challenge, the organisation behind the French Challenger La Roche-Posay Racing Team, said: "With La Roche-Posay, a L’Oréal Groupe brand, we are building an ambitious, modern and demanding French team, one that intends to establish itself over the long term at the highest level of world sailing. This first confrontation will, of course, allow us to assess our sporting level. But it is also a powerful opportunity to create visibility: for the team, for our partners, for our athletes and for everything this project represents in terms of performance, innovation and French excellence.
CHALLENGERLa Roche-Posay Racing TeamWith a team base in Lorient, in north-west France, K-Challenge will compete at the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup under the name of La Roche-Posay Racing Team having secured support from the dermatological skincare brand under the L’Oréal umbrella.
Stéphan Kandler, CEO of K-Challenge, the organisation behind the French Challenger La Roche-Posay Racing Team, said: "With La Roche-Posay, a L’Oréal Groupe brand, we are building an ambitious, modern and demanding French team, one that intends to establish itself over the long term at the highest level of world sailing. This first confrontation will, of course, allow us to assess our sporting level. But it is also a powerful opportunity to create visibility: for the team, for our partners, for our athletes and for everything this project represents in terms of performance, innovation and French excellence.
CHALLENGER
FRANCE
SOCIÉTÉ NAUTIQUE DE SAINT-TROPEZWith a team base in Lorient, in north-west France, K-Challenge will compete at the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup under the name of La Roche-Posay Racing Team having secured support from the dermatological skincare brand under the L’Oréal umbrella.
Stéphan Kandler, CEO of K-Challenge, the organisation behind the French Challenger La Roche-Posay Racing Team, said: "With La Roche-Posay, a L’Oréal Groupe brand, we are building an ambitious, modern and demanding French team, one that intends to establish itself over the long term at the highest level of world sailing. This first confrontation will, of course, allow us to assess our sporting level. But it is also a powerful opportunity to create visibility: for the team, for our partners, for our athletes and for everything this project represents in terms of performance, innovation and French excellence."
America’s Cup Participations
2027 AC38 Naples . Challenger
2024 AC37 Barcelona . Challenger
2007 AC32 Valencia . Challenger
CREW
-
Quentin DelapierreSkipper & Starboard HelmQuentin Delapierre, born in Vannes in 1992, grew up in a sailing-oriented family in the Gulf of Morbihan region and entered professional-level keelboat racing in his early twenties, building on foundational youth sailing skills to launch his first competitive projects. In 2014, at age 22, he skippered the French team EV Cataschool to victory in the J/80 European Championship. In 2017, he led a French crew to win the Croatia Match Cup in the M32 class, and he also secured national-level podiums in French match-racing championships, which helped attract initial professional backing. Quentin’s involvement in the Tour de France à la Voile began In 2016, skippering Lorina Limonade – Golfe du Morbihan where he dominated the event by winning 10 of 17 races across nine stages, clinching the overall victory with a 26-point lead. He repeated the triumph in 2018 before joining up with Manon Audinet to pursue qualification in the mixed Nacra 17 class for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The pair qualified France for the Olympics, won a gold medal at the Hempel World Cup Series in Enoshima in 2019 and a 10th-place finish at the 2019 World Sailing Championships in Auckland, securing the nation's spot. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Delapierre and Audinet finished 8th overall and three years later in 2023 he was appointed as skipper and helmsman for Orient Express Racing Team, the French challenger for the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup in Barcelona. For 2027 he is the nominated skipper of La Roche-Posay Racing Team and co-helm from the starboard side in Sardinia.
-
Diego BotínPort HelmDiego Botín, was born on Christmas Day 1993 in Santander, Spain, a sailing city renowned for developing high performance sailors. Diego grew up in the Botín sailing family, which has produced elite sailors across multiple generations with his father Gonzalo Botín Naveda, a noted amateur sailor, and his uncle, Marcelino being one of the world’s top yacht designers. At the age of 7, Diego joined the Specialised Centre of High Performance (CEAR), where he discovered his passion for sailing and its competitive nature. During his teenage years, between 2008 and 2012, he began competing at national and international level for Spain, which helped shape his technical skill and competitive mindset ahead of Olympic-level racing. A switch to the Olympic 49er Class saw Diego represent Spain alongside Lago López first at the 2016 Games in Beijing, where the duo finished ninth, and then again at the Covid-affected Tokyo Games of 2020, where they missed a medal by a small margin in fourth. The appetite was there for Olympic success and for the 2024 Paris Games, Diego teamed up with now fellow La Roche-Posay Racing Team trimmer, Florian Trittel, to win the gold medal by some 12 points before taking season victory in the 2024 SailGP Championships and then the 49er 2025 World Championships. Diego joins La Roche-Posay as a co-helm and is one of the most in-demand sailors in the world today.
-
Jason SaundersStarboard TrimA two-time Olympian, Jason competed at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the 470 class, placing 5th overall, before switching to the mixed gender multihull Nacra 17, when it was first introduced as Olympic discipline back in 2013. He raced at Rio 2016 with Gemma Jones - the duo were one of the youngest crews competing and finished 4th overall. Jason was also part of the winning New Zealand team at the inaugural Red Bull Youth America's Cup in San Francisco in 2013 that so memorably launched the careers of a whole generation of Cup sailors. Jason re-joins La Roche-Posay Racing Team as a trimmer sat behind skipper Quentin Delapierre.
-
Florian TrittelPort TrimFlorian is a Swiss-Spanish dual national who became Youth World Champion in 2024 in the 29er. The Olympics beckoned and Florian transitioned into the Nacra 17 class where he finished sixth at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before teaming up with fellow La Roche-Posay Racing Team helm Diego Botín for the Paris 2024 Games where the duo took gold. That same year, Florian was part of the victorious Spanish SailGP team and then secured the 49er World Championships in 2025. He’s a keen kiteboarder and is regularly seen in Tarifa, southern Spain, blasting around on his off-days.
-
Enzo BalangerReserve HelmKnown as the ‘King of Garda’ to everyone in the International Moth fleet, Enzo famously became the first ever French national to win the 2025 World Championships and he did so in fine style at the venue he loves. Known as one of the stand-out foiling stars of the next generation, Enzo skippered the French entry in the Youth America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024. Originally from Les Abymes in Guadeloupe, Enzo discovered sailing at the age of six. After a brief six-month stint in the Laser, Enzo moved to mainland France in 2015 and joined the Pôle Espoir de la Rochelle sailing the 420. During his first season in 2016 he was crowned vice-champion of France Espoir and achieved his first world podium in the U17 class finishing 3rd and then took fourth in the 2018 ISAF Youth World Championship in China. He started sailing the foiling Moth in 2018 and in 2020 the Nacra 17. After a year and a half of competition and a 5th place in the Nacra 17 World Youth Championships in 2020, he decided to change direction back to the Moth. His idols are Jean Le Cam and Nathan Outteridge.
-
Timothé LapauwReserve TrimmerTimothé comes from a distinguished sporting family with both his father and grandfather Olympians, whilst his mother is an eight-time French hockey champion. Having been born on Reunion Island, the family moved to Antibes in the South of France where his passion for sailing was ignited. Beginning as many do, in the Optimist class, Timothé quickly rose through the youth ranks to win three French championship titles. Groupama Team France spotted his potential early and invited him to Bermuda for the 2017 Youth America’s Cup where his talents impressed the Alinghi Team and shortly after he joined for the Extreme Series where the team won in 2018 and 2019. Timothé is also a winner of the coveted Bol D’Or Mirabaud and comes to Sardinia as a reserve trimmer.