{"id":3823,"date":"2025-09-22T15:08:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T13:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swazidailynews.com\/?p=3823"},"modified":"2025-09-22T15:08:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T13:08:24","slug":"a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/","title":{"rendered":"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz rented a van and went on a road trip home to Monaco after their flight from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix landed in Italy due to bad weather.<\/p>\n<p>Leclerc, who finished a disappointing ninth in Sunday&#8217;s race in Baku while Sainz was third in Williams&#8217; first proper Formula One podium since 2017, posted a viral video of the impromptu trip on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<a title=\"Home hero Piastri to have Australian F1 grandstand named after him\" href=\"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/archives\/1618\">Home hero Piastri to have Australian F1 grandstand named after him<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So after a very difficult weekend in Baku I thought it couldn&#8217;t get any worse but&#8230;,&#8221; Leclerc intoned in darkness before the camera panned around to show his vehicle entering a tunnel.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3829\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3829\" style=\"width: 1920px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3829\" src=\"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/charles-leclerc-and-carlos-sainz-1200g.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3829\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Sainz, at the wheel, picked up the story: &#8220;We were diverted for a storm, we couldn&#8217;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.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;A two-hour drive, we will make it in one hour and a half,&#8221; joked the Spaniard, who lost his seat at Ferrari to seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton at the end of last year.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton has yet to stand on the podium with his new team in 17 races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz rented a van and went on a road trip home&hellip;","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,43],"tags":[46,39,73,58,68],"class_list":["post-3823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national","category-sports","tag-africa","tag-entertainment","tag-eswatini","tag-national","tag-sport","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies - Eswatini Daily News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies - Eswatini Daily News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz rented a van and went on a road trip home&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Eswatini Daily News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-22T13:08:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eswatini Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eswatini Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eswatini Daily News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a2e7ad908f0e6606cc49214ec19776de\"},\"headline\":\"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-22T13:08:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":222,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\",\"Entertainment\",\"Eswatini\",\"National\",\"Sport\"],\"articleSection\":[\"National\",\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/\",\"name\":\"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies - Eswatini Daily News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-22T13:08:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a2e7ad908f0e6606cc49214ec19776de\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/3823\\\/national\\\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/\",\"name\":\"Eswatini Daily News\",\"description\":\"EDN\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/a2e7ad908f0e6606cc49214ec19776de\",\"name\":\"Eswatini Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cd20c640fc2b77fae5560d5aa1f54a994fbb6bda894b89c7624c9793dc7790d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cd20c640fc2b77fae5560d5aa1f54a994fbb6bda894b89c7624c9793dc7790d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/cd20c640fc2b77fae5560d5aa1f54a994fbb6bda894b89c7624c9793dc7790d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Eswatini Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\\\/edn\\\/author\\\/adekunleo\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies - Eswatini Daily News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies - Eswatini Daily News","og_description":"Former Ferrari teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz rented a van and went on a road trip home&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/","og_site_name":"Eswatini Daily News","article_published_time":"2025-09-22T13:08:24+00:00","author":"Eswatini Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Eswatini Daily News","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/"},"author":{"name":"Eswatini Daily News","@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/#\/schema\/person\/a2e7ad908f0e6606cc49214ec19776de"},"headline":"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies","datePublished":"2025-09-22T13:08:24+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/"},"wordCount":222,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","keywords":["Africa","Entertainment","Eswatini","National","Sport"],"articleSection":["National","Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/","url":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/","name":"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies - Eswatini Daily News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2025-09-22T13:08:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/#\/schema\/person\/a2e7ad908f0e6606cc49214ec19776de"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/3823\/national\/a-van-and-a-plan-sainz-and-leclerc-become-road-trip-buddies\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A van and a plan: Sainz and Leclerc become road trip buddies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/","name":"Eswatini Daily News","description":"EDN","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/#\/schema\/person\/a2e7ad908f0e6606cc49214ec19776de","name":"Eswatini Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd20c640fc2b77fae5560d5aa1f54a994fbb6bda894b89c7624c9793dc7790d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd20c640fc2b77fae5560d5aa1f54a994fbb6bda894b89c7624c9793dc7790d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cd20c640fc2b77fae5560d5aa1f54a994fbb6bda894b89c7624c9793dc7790d7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Eswatini Daily News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn"],"url":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/author\/adekunleo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genesisekucalenimedia.com\/edn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}