“Thought it couldn’t get worse”
Formula 1 stars experience travel chaos
22.09.2025 – 6:58 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc experiences a frustrating Sunday at the race in Baku. It’s just as bad on the return trip.
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc had imagined this journey home differently: On Sunday, the two Formula 1 drivers made their way back from the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan in Baku. But not everything went smoothly.
In his Instagram story, Ferrari-Pilot Leclerc shared a video in which he sits in a van with Sainz. While Leclerc films, Sainz drives the car. “After a very difficult weekend in Baku, I thought it couldn’t really get worse,” says Leclerc and then swings with the camera towards Sainz.
“Where are we, Carlos?” Leclerc asks the Spaniard. He replies: “We are in the middle of Italy.” But what do the two pilots living in Monaco do in a car in the middle of Italy? “We were diverted because of a storm. We couldn’t land in Nice, so we ended up in the middle of Italy,” reports Sainz about her return flight. “We have rented a van and are now on the way to Monaco.”
The racing driver has also planned a certain speed for the return trip to Monaco. “It’s a two -hour drive, but we will make it in an hour and a half,” says Sainz. Only passenger Leclerc is very enthusiastic about the rapid plan, says only: “No!” Sainz also corrects himself with a wink: “No, no, never.”
Sainz and Leclerc were at Ferrari between 2021 and 2024. The two still have a friendship. Despite good performances, Sainz had to vacate his place at Scuderia for the current season, as the Ferrari bosses warm up record world champion Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes.
Hamilton has not yet been able to convince in the red car – and was also in trouble with his team -mate Leclerc at the race in Baku. In the last race round, the Briton ignored the team’s instructions to return Leclerc’s eighth place after he had had him passed a few laps beforehand to start an attack on seventh place with the fresher tires. However, this attack was unsuccessful, so Ferrari wanted to restore the original order of the drivers. But Hamilton kept eighth place.
Leclerc then complained about Hamilton on Team radio: “I don’t really care, it’s just about eighth place. So it’s okay, he can look forward to this eighth place,” he said supposedly, which is supposedly great, but then it is only stupid because it is not fair. ” For the return trip, he preferred to choose the society of his old buddy. The race in Baku successfully ran for him: with third place he was completely surprisingly secured by his first podium in the service of his new employer William.