"We were not able to secure a budget that would have enabled a competitive campaign." With these words, Vincenzo Onorato, head of the so-called Challenger of Record, announces the end of his Cup ambitions. He continues: "When I go to sea, I want to win. I'm not interested in a hopeless campaign."
The withdrawal is not without a certain irony, as Onorato, as the first challenger with his Mascalzone Latino campaign and representative of all other challengers and contractual partners vis-à-vis Oracle Racing, had made the complete reorganisation and switch to catamarans driven by Oracle Racing possible in the first place with his signatures.
A key, frequently repeated aspect of this was reducing costs for the teams. Now the costs have become too high for Onorato.
The end comes as no surprise, as rumours of a lack of sponsors had already been growing in recent weeks.
According to the Cup rules, the next registered challenge now moves into the role of Challenger of Record, i.e. the Swedish team Artemis of Torbjörn Törnquist with skipper Paul Cayard, which submitted its challenge to Oracle Racing on 8 November 2010.
