With F1 in the midst of its three-week-long summer break, drivers are getting some much-needed time away from a hectic schedule. As a result, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez chose to fly off to Mexico via Canada to be with his family right after the Belgian Grand Prix. YouTuber Kym Illman suggests the Mexican might have spent around $218,400 in the process.
Given their luxurious lifestyle, most F1 drivers choose to use private jets to fulfill their travel needs. As with everything, hiring a jet comes at a price, and the higher the luxury, the more they have to spend. With Spa being a small town in Belgium, it isn’t a tourist-heavy attraction and, as such, doesn’t invite a lot of air traffic. Thus, managing personal air travel becomes a necessity for F1 drivers.
Sergio Perez spent heavily to reunite with family amid season break
Illman revealed the Mexican chartered a plane from Liege to Montreal, which is an eight-hour journey, and then proceed to Guadalajara from the Canadian city, adding another five hours to the journey. The Mexican thus spent over 13 hours and thousands of dollars to journey from Belgium to his family in Mexico.
“Now that would be a pricey flight because I’ve already mentioned to you that I priced up an hour and 20 (minutes) being, on a large aircraft, something like 19 to 23000 euros ($20,700 – $25,000). This is just under ten times that duration, and of course, you’ve got to get a separate set of crew.”
Illman also said this was the longest flight any driver took once the race ended. However, given that it was the start of the mid-season break, the move made sense on the driver’s part.
Perez has had a see-saw season so far
Sergio Perez started the season strong by winning two of the first four races. He gave hopes of a closely contested championship battle between the two Red Bull drivers but couldn’t handle the pressure. He failed to qualify for Q3 on five occasions as he saw a major dip in performance at one point. However, the 33-year-old seems to have found the right track once again, with convincing performances leading up to the break.
Perez would not have been too worried about losing his seat, however, because Christian Horner publicly claimed that the Mexican will retain his seat till the end of his contract in 2024. Horner’s comments would have shot the hopes of potential replacements of Perez in Daniel Ricciardo, Oscar Piastri, Yuki Tsunoda, and others, as they will have to wait for another year before potentially getting to sit on F1’s most desired seat- per GPBlog.
