When Alonso threw out Sainz's lucky charm during his F1 rookie year

Sebastian Vettel raced with two coins in his socks, Mark Webber always got into his car from the same side, and Carlos Sainz had his lucky cap. At least he did until his hero Fernando Alonso hurled it into a crowd of fans.

It’s been a decade since one of racing’s silliest tales involving Sainz and the talismanic headgear he’d worn during his brilliant charge from junior racing and into F1. After Alonso’s impulsive throw at the Spanish Grand Prix a decade ago, the hat looked to be lost forever — or so Sainz thought.

Amid a hectic racing calendar, maintaining something familiar can keep drivers grounded and quickly develop into a superstition. That was the case for Sainz who began his debut Formula 1 season in 2015 alongside fellow rookie Max Verstappen at Scuderia Toro Rosso.

While the future world champion was already making headlines as the youngest driver ever to start a race (aged 17 years, 5 months and 13 days at the season-opening 2015 Australian Grand Prix), Sainz also arrived with plenty of hype as the reigning Formula Renault 3.5 Series champ. He’d wo the title with a 35 point gap to second-placed Pierre Gasly, having taken seven race wins during the year — all while religiously wearing his lucky cap.

Growing up, Sainz idolised his rally driving father, but that branch of motor sport wasn’t for him. Instead, Sainz Jnr’s focus fell to Formula 1 and one compatriot who was starting to make a name for himself. 

“When I turned nine, 10 years old, there was this Spaniard called Fernando Alonso starting to win races in Formula 1,” Sainz said in 2018, on Formula 1’s Beyond the Grid podcast. “I met him in 2005 at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, and when I met him, I went back home and I told my Dad, ‘Dad, I want to be like Fernando Alonso one day.'”

Photos exist of the moment when a young Carlos met Alonso during his Renault days, and years later the two became close friends.

Sainz joined the Red Bull Academy in 2010 and, during his time with the junior team, raced across British Formula 3, FIA European Formula 3 and then to the GP3 Series in 2013. He joined Formula Renault 3.5 the following year, winning the championship with DAMS — and his lucky charm. 

Sainz’s grey Red Bull athlete cap would go everywhere with him, with photographs showing him wearing it from 2013. Naturally, he brought it with him in his debut F1 season, until that fateful day in Barcelona.

Ahead of his first home race, Sainz was joined by Alonso and Manor driver Roberto Mehri in handing out circuit-branded caps to the excitable and adoring crowd during the pre-race drivers’ parade. But, once the stash was gone, Alonso wasted no time in throwing his McLaren-Honda cap into the grandstand before doing the same for Mehri and Sainz. 

“We ran out of circuit caps to give to the people, and suddenly Fernando had the great idea of giving our personal caps to the crowd,” Sainz recalled during the next round in Monaco. “So he gave his [cap], then he gave Roberto’s [cap away] and suddenly he went to get mine. He got it, and threw it and I was like ‘no way, that is my cap! I have been wearing it for two years now’. 

“I had a really good year last year with that cap, and I have taken it everywhere with me. I have very special thoughts about that cap.”

Assuming it was gone for good, Sainz was devastated until a few days later when someone messaged him on Twitter claiming to have the cap and to be ready to make a deal. Reports at time suggested that Sainz’s former manager Borja Ortiz-Echagüe negotiated for almost 24 hours with the fan, who wanted an all-access paddock pass. These were already in limited supply, with only one for Ortiz-Echagüe and another needed for a family member.

In the end, an agreement was made and Carlos Sainz was reunited with his beloved item: “It was my cap, it was fully checked!”

But had the charm been broken? Sainz arrived at the 2015 Spanish Grand Prix ahead of his team-mate in the drivers’ world championship but soon afterwards he had a run of four retirements, during which Verstappen pulled in front. Soon, he’d be racing at Red Bull, leaving Sainz at Toro Rosso.