Red Bull Air Race GmbH has confirmed that for the future success and development of the sport, the World Championship will take a one-year break in 2011.

So, as we reflect on our deep disappointment, let’s keep things in perspective and be both happy and amazed that in the short 7 year’s history of our sport, we’ve had 49 successful races on 5 continents and only a few cancellations by comparison.

So, since we’ve done calibrations we can be sure that Peter will be racing the new Corvus this weekend. It will be fascinating to see how well this man-machine combination does! It was in 2006 that I started my journey to bring a new type to the Red Bull Air Race. Of course, our task was totally different all those years ago but there are some parallels...

As things are wrapped up here in Rio, Team Breitling has a lot to be pleased about. First, our British Airways 777 is en-route and UK airspace seems clear of volcanic disruption so the idea of being home tomorrow is marvelous. On top of that, we come away second in the world championship and with a smaller gap from the leader.

I look at some other high risk sports like base-jumping and free climbing and think they must be nuts. That’s because I could not do that; I lack the knowledge, the skill and the passion. I hope those who may consider us to be somewhat crazy will respect that we understand the risks; we are passionate about what we do and we are professional in the way we go about our business.

Some of our air races have been won or lost by 1/100 of a second. That makes my 0.83 sec Abu Dhabi loss to Paul Bonhomme seem like quite a big margin and in terms of how we think and plan, it is actually quite a chasm. At 185 mph or so, it’s a lead of about 65 metres .. sufficient fuselage lengths for a convincing victory.