After his maiden Williams podium at the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz endured travel woes on his journey home, joined by Charles Leclerc on an unexpected road trip.
Aiming for a quiet and uneventful journey home from Baku, Sainz and Leclerc’s plans turned into disarray when storms caused their plane to be diverted from Nice to Italy.
With Monaco the intended destination, this led to a frantic search for transportation, the duo along with Leclerc’s friends Joris Trouche and Antoine Truchet ending up in a van.
The original twenty minute transfer from Nice became a two hour drive across Europe, invoking frustrations as their journey became far from a simple drive home.
But speaking at a event by Williams sponsor Hackett, Sainz said he will fondly remember the journey, as the two former team-mates shared a unique memory of an adventure.
“Bit hectic landing in an airport so late, having to rent a van, having to jump in a van with all the bags and having to drive back home for a couple of hours,” he said.
“But in the end, I was reflecting on it, we were very frustrated because we really wanted to land in Nice and [have a] 20-minute drive, but then you think about it and you say these are the kind of days that you remember.
“If we would have landed in Nice and we would have just taken the normal 20-minute home taxi or whatever, we would never remember that day or that moment. But it’s those little adventures that you will remember when you are older.”
Leclerc documents impromptu Sainz roadtrip
Leclerc first revealed the impromptu road trip to the world by taking to social media via a recorded video.
Showing the dark road, and then his driver, the Monegasque inferred his travel nightmare was a continuation of his appalling Azerbaijan GP weekend.
“So, after a difficult weekend in Baku, I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but…”
“We are driving a van!” Sainz confirmed. “In the middle of Italy. We were diverted for a storm, we couldn’t land in Nice, so we landed in the middle of Italy. We rented a van, and now we are on our way to Monaco.
“A two-hour drive, and we will make it in one hour and a half,” he said.
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