Explained: Why a fire extinguisher is always a part of Carlos Sainz’s quirky podium celebrations

Carlos Sainz's post-race podium celebrations included a quirky twist, as his close allies were seen holding a fire extinguisher. Though many would have reckoned that the fire extinguisher might be for some laughs and giggles, it is actually a tradition that has carried over from his time at Ferrari.

At the Azerbaijan GP, Sainz's personal trainer, Pierluigi Della Bona, aka Gigi, was first spotted holding a fire extinguisher during the celebrations that were held in the pitlane. This was before Sainz's manager, Carlos Onoro, picked it up for the photo that was taken indoors, along with Gigi, his cousin, and James Vowles.

However, this was not the first time that an extinguisher was brought to the post-race celebrations for the Spaniard. This ritual dates back to the Bahrain Grand Prix last year, where Carlos Sainz bagged his first podium of the season with Ferrari.

But, when he got back to his cousin and manager, Onoro, for getting photographed with the trophy, they found out that the P3 trophy was already packed up. So, they decided to pick up a fire extinguisher, making it a symbolic trophy, as Onoro then shared on his Instagram, captioning the post:

"“Ooohhh no…..they packed the trophy!” Hold my beer: 🧯😅"

Since then, this became an unspoken tradition within the No. 55 camp, as at every podium that Sainz earned following the 2024 Bahrain GP, he was captured with a fire extinguisher in his post-race celebration photos.

While this custom witnessed a long hiatus after the 2024 season finale, where Carlos Sainz finished P2, it marked a return at the Azerbaijan GP this year, as the Williams driver scored his first podium with the team.

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Carlos Sainz was overjoyed after scoring his maiden podium with Williams

Williams' Carlos Sainz holding the third-place trophy on the podium after the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2025 - Source: Getty

Carlos Sainz had to make way for Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, prompting his move away from Maranello to Williams with the onset of the 2025 season. While the Grove-based squad has been a backmarker team in the past few years, the 2025 season has been a bit different.

Williams has scored over 100 points this year, its largest points total in over eight years, and there are still seven race weekends left to play for. However, Sainz's start to his journey with Williams was laid out with hurdles in the first half of the season, leading him to only score 16 points in the first 16 race weekends.

But this changed at the Azerbaijan GP weekend, where he claimed a front row start and finished the race in P3. Ecstatic with his result, the Spaniard later reflected on his race in the post-race press conference:

"Yeah. I'm extremely proud of everyone at Williams for pushing through our very difficult year. I think we've proven to everyone the massive step that we took compared to last year. We are on the rise; we are in the right direction. Unfortunately, with me, we've had a lot of bad luck, a lot of incidents — very difficult to convert all that pace into results. But now I understand why it all happened, because the first podium needed to come like this. It's just life, you know? Life just sometimes brings you those bad moments to give you a very nice one, and this stays much better than any other thing that I was expecting."

"So, just a life lesson, to keep believing, keep trusting yourself, your team around you, your procedures, everything that you're doing — because sooner or later, it always pays off."

Carlos Sainz's podium in Baku has helped him almost double his points tally, as he jumped from 16 to 31 points within a span of a race weekend.