Sainz parks in the wrong blue box as Baku’s messy FP1 serves up a lighter moment
Baku has a way of making even the sharpest pros look a touch human. On Friday, it was Carlos Sainz’s turn.
Midway through a stop-start FP1 at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Williams driver rolled into the pit lane, got the “Box, engine off” call from Gaëtan Jego… and calmly switched his car off in the Alpine box.
Wrong blue.
For a beat, nobody moved. A ring of slightly baffled Enstone mechanics stared at a switched-off Williams in their space, while Sainz, who once raced for the same team in its Renault days, sat there waiting for the usual flurry of crew hands that never arrived. Then came the sheepish radio from Jego: “Okay, you’re at the Alpine box.”
Cue grins, a quick restart, and a neat re-park a few garages down where his actual crew were ready and waiting. No harm, just one of those Baku brain fades—understandable, frankly, when both teams are drenched in blue and the pit lane is a conveyor belt of identical garage fronts flashing past at 80 km/h.
It was that kind of session. FP1 was repeatedly interrupted after the final-corner kerb shed debris, prompting red flags and killing any rhythm. Useful, in a way, for Oscar Piastri. The McLaren driver—and the current championship leader—lost early running to a Mercedes power unit issue, but the stoppages softened the blow and kept programs broadly aligned. Elsewhere, Lewis Hamilton clipped the inside wall at Turn 5 in one of those Baku kisses that reminds you the circuit gives inches and takes miles.
Sainz’s detour was at least good for the paddock mood. The radio told the story: an instruction to power down, a moment’s silence, and then the dawning realisation that the Williams had beached in enemy territory. Once fired back up, Sainz rejoined and got on with it, ending the hour eighth fastest—three spots and a couple of tenths behind teammate Alex Albon.
There’s a nice layer of irony to the mix-up. Sainz knows that garage well enough. He spent a season and change at Enstone when the team wore yellow and answered to Renault, back in 2017–18, after graduating via Toro Rosso. He’s done the full tour since—McLaren, Ferrari—and landed at Williams for 2025 with four grand prix wins on the CV and a brief to haul the Grove outfit forward.
That’s happening, quietly. Williams have found a more robust baseline this year and, when the track’s in the right window, the FW47 bites. Baku’s low-drag demands suit tidy drag numbers and a car that breathes over the bumps; Friday suggested Williams are somewhere in the mix again. Sainz looked comfortable on high fuel and Albon’s low-fuel run had a bit of snap to it before the flags diluted the picture.
As ever in Azerbaijan, it’s the details. Track evolution is steep, the walls narrow the margins to razor-thin, and the wind has a habit of turning braking references into suggestions. Kerb damage aside, teams wrestled with a surface that rubbered in late and a balance that swung with the breeze. Expect lap times to drop sharply in FP2 and again in qualifying trim, assuming the circuit keeps its paint on the furniture this time.
What to watch from here? Piastri’s recovery, for one, after that early power unit issue. McLaren don’t tend to lose their way when mileage is compromised, and the Australian has been relentlessly economical with laps all season. Hamilton’s brush at Turn 5 was minor, but it’s the kind of strike that tells you where the limits are—Mercedes won’t want repeat data points. And Williams? If Sainz’s FP1 is any indication, the pace is decent and the spirits are high. Just keep an eye on the garage signage.
Sainz, for his part, will file it under “funny in hindsight” and move on. He’s been around long enough to know that these weekends are won and lost in the invisible work: outlaps, tyre prep, that final front-wing turn before the run that counts. Get that right, and nobody remembers a brief stop at the wrong front door. Get it wrong, and, well, at least you’ll have the meme.
