SailGP has confirmed plans to add two new teams to the start line of the 2026 Season, bolstering the F50 fleet to 14 national teams.
It comes as the league revealed a first look at its 2026 Calendar, which sees the return of fan-favorite locations, alongside a first-time trip to Perth.
Alongside the calendar, the league announced: “The championship has confirmed plans to add two new expansion teams to its roster in 2026.”
SailGP CEO Russell Coutts previously hinted at the expansion of the fleet at a pre-event press conference in Auckland earlier this season.
Speaking about the split-fleet racing format trialed in practice racing, Coutts explained: “We’ve got the new format that we’ve been trailing and that’s where we split the fleet into two - so six teams and six teams, with the top four going through to the final podium race.
“As we add expansion teams next season that will become seven and seven and then eight and eight, and so forth. At this stage, we’re hoping to confirm two new additional teams in 2026 – making a 14-nation fleet.”
It marks a period of continued growth for SailGP, which has increased its fleet every single season.
In Season 1, the league launched with six teams; the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Japan, China and France. This grew to a fleet of eight teams in Season 2, with the addition of Spain, New Zealand and ROCKWOOL DEN, and the loss of China. In Season 3, the fleet grew further still, adding NorthStar Canada and Switzerland to the roster, and losing Japan. Season 4 meanwhile saw the entry of Germany Deutsche Bank before Mubadala Brazil and Red Bull Italy joined the start line at the beginning of this season.
