[Monday 25^th January]: Sir Ben Ainslie is confident that Land Rover BAR's Exclusive Innovation Partnership with Land Rover will help the team to bring the Cup home to Britain, where it all began back in 1851.  

This will be the team's first attempt to challenge for the America's Cup, the world's oldest international sporting trophy. Land Rover's extensive facilities and expertise is proving invaluable in the Land Rover BAR challenge according to five time Olympic medallist, Land Rover BAR Team Principal and Skipper, Sir Ben Ainslie;

 "We are determined to achieve our goal to bring the Cup home. We want to work with the best, and as technology leaders Land Rover can offer so much to the development of a winning boat. They are a great British brand, but also a fantastic engineering and technology company who will work hand in hand with our design and engineering team."

Renowned for its ingenuity since the company's inception in 1948, Land Rover recognises the need for innovation, investing over £11 billion into product creation over the past 5 years. Similar to its work with prototype vehicles, Land Rover is focused on creating a series of test boats with the team. The knowledge gained from these will be applied to building the final America's Cup Class catamaran that the British Challenger will compete in, during the 35^th  America's Cup event in Bermuda in 2017. An internationally sourced faculty, including engineers from Sweden and San Francisco as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are dedicating their specialist knowledge to the Land Rover BAR campaign.

The requirement for globally attractive vehicles has led the automotive brand to develop its advanced engineering facilities that currently exist at three plants across the Midlands, including a research facility at the University of Warwick. The demands posed by Land Rover BAR's challenge dovetail with the all‑terrain testing and data analysis capabilities of Land Rover's resources.

Beginning in 1851 off the coast of the Isle of Wight, the America's Cup has never been won by a British Challenger. The race demands cutting edge technology, exemplified by the introduction of flying catamarans in 2013 ‑ a technique known as foiling ‑‑ and has led to the sporting challenge being labelled the Ultimate Design Race. 

Sir Ben Ainslie unveiled Land Rover's Design Race manifesto in Düsseldorf with a teaser film to mark the start of its Above & Beyond global campaign. The OEP campaign, which will see the integration of the Land Rover BAR partnership assets into Land Rover's wider brand and product marketing strategy, will reinforce its design, technology and innovation credentials and champion the physical and emotional attributes required to challenge for the oldest trophy in sport.     

Martin Whitmarsh, Land Rover BAR Chief Executive Officer, said: "A business like Land Rover has a whole breadth of engineering expertise that an organisation like Land Rover BAR doesn't have access too. Their knowledge and expertise of system technology, analysis and simulation has a strong synergy with the work we are doing at Land Rover BAR, and is really adding to our goal to 'Bring the Cup Home'. The best team needs to have the best sailors, but we also need to have the fastest boat ‑ this is the real challenge for all of us."

Mark Cameron, Land Rover Brand Experience Director, said: "Technology and data alone will not provide all the answers, but it will take an immense appetite for discovery and the power of human aspiration to reach our goals. Our shared values and joint expertise have enabled us to make an impactful start on developing these areas of engineering and ultimately making a through road for success in the 2017 America's Cup Finals in Bermuda. We'll take the same self‑assurance into this extraordinary challenge ‑ to help Land Rover BAR achieve their goal and go Above & Beyond in this pursuit of excellence."

To watch or download Land Rover's manifesto film and find out more about Land Rover BAR's aim to #BringTheCupHome, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdXkjGEUPzc

ENDS