Williams’ Nicholas Latifi was taking in his new surroundings in Suzuka during Friday practice, perhaps a little too intimately.
The Canadian joined the Formula 1 paddock in 2020, and the Japanese Grand Prix was called off that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was then cancelled again in 2021, so he had never raced at the iconic racetrack until this weekend.
Latifi will be leaving Williams at the end of the season after an underwhelming campaign, with the British side yet to choose his replacement for 2023.
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This could well be the last time the 27-year-old gets to take to the figure-of-eight track in an F1 car, so he took the opportunity to do some exploring during Friday practice.
Visibility was limited because of the wet conditions, and Latifi appeared to pick out the wrong part of the final chicane as his turn in reference.
When he turned right, instead of going into the following left-hander that leads into the final corner, he ended up staring at a barrier, so he was forced to flick spin the car back around.
Latifi took to the radio to complain about the car, bringing about ridicule from fans as a tough 2022 continues to plague the 2019 Formula 2 runner-up.
A possible suggestion could be that Latifi felt that there was something wrong with his car, so he pulled off to the side of the track before realising that there was nothing untoward after all.
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Either way, it was an embarrassing moment for him and the team, and it did not get much better on Saturday.
Latifi went into the weekend with a five-place grid penalty for wiping out Zhou Guanyu in Singapore last weekend, but he qualified 20th and last anyway.
A fine effort from Alex Albon nearly got him into Q2, but he was narrowly beaten by Sebastian Vettel, who went on to qualify ninth at his final Japanese Grand Prix for Aston Martin.