WE may be three races into the Formula One season, but old habits die hard.
At least they seem to do for Carlos Sainz, who suffered an embarrassing gaffe during Free Practice one at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Williams driver, who has picked up a single point for the British constructor so far this season, was entering the pitlane to change his tyres at the Suzuka Circuit.
Sainz's race engineer, Gaetan Jego, was heard saying on the radio: “Box, box. Box, box. Remember we're at the beginning of the pitlane.”
However, Sainz embarrassingly missed the turn-in to his box and continued driving towards the end of the pitlane, believing that was where the team were based.
Realising his blunder, the Spaniard said: “Oh s***! I missed it guys. I thought we were at the end, sorry.”
Jego, who has been with Williams since 2020, replied: “OK, so straight out, and we're boxing again.”
Embarrassed by the gaffe but able to laugh it off, the 30-year-old said: “Yeah, sorry about that.”
famously made a similar blunder in 2013 after joining from when he stopped in the his old team's box during the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Sainz finished P10 in the session before matching the result in a chaotic FP2 which saw
His use of explicit language is unlikely to see him punished by the FIA, who introduced controversial swearing guidelines last year which angered F1 stars after it was revealed they could land hefty fines for the act.
However, in the driver's briefing before the Australian Grand Prix, the rules were clarified to allow swearing in the heat of the moment if it was not offensive to others – although media obligations do not allow for any foul language.
Before arriving at Williams, Sainz had raced at for four years.
In that time he picked up four race wins and six poles, finishing fifth in the driver's world championship standings three times and seventh once.
Sainz made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso, now Racing Bulls in 2015, after coming through the Red Bull driver development programme.
He raced with the team until late in 2017 when he joined for the final four races of that season.
The Smooth Operator would find his way to McLaren in 2019, securing his first F1 career podium at the Brazilian Grand Prix before adding a career-best P2 at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.
Ferrari came calling the following year, with Sainz picking up his first F1 win at the British Grand Prix in 2022.
Dry conditions are set to hold for qualifying tomorrow before a cold front moves in with the chance of rain for the race on Sunday.
Suzuka is the first of a triple-header which sees F1 travel to Bahrain and in consecutive weeks.
