Perez admits to flying visit to Mexico

Sergio Perez, the first Formula One driver to test positive for Covid-19, flew to Mexico without telling his team following last month’s Hungarian Grand Prix, it has emerged.

Perez, who has been replaced by Nico Hulkenberg for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix, returned a positive test for the virus on Thursday.

It is not known how the Mexican became infected, despite all the protocols in place, and travelling on a private jet back to Mexico following the race in Budapest on July 19.

His team, Racing Point, on Thursday denied that their driver had done so, despite reports he was seen in a Guadalajara restaurant on July 21. But in a video message on Twitter yesterday morning, Perez admitted he had flown home to see his mother for two days after she had suffered an accident.

“As soon as she left hospital, I was able to see her,” said the 30-year-old, who is now in self-isolation and also likely to miss next weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.

“And then I came back to Europe. Same way, with all the protocols in place. I just got it [Covid-19], I don’t know from where. I have no symptoms at all. It is one of the saddest days in my career.”

After the controversy over Charles Leclerc’s return to Monaco between the two Austrian races last month – which earned him a warning from the FIA – Perez’s decision to fly to Mexico, which has a death toll, as of Thursday, of 46,000, has been called into question.

Perez’s team, though, denied they had an issue with his trip. “We’ve got no clauses in the contract where he’s got to ask permission to go back to his family,” Otmar Szafnauer, the Racing Point principal, said. “That’s what he’s done forever while he’s been driving for us.”

Szafnauer added: “Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Perhaps we should[…] change the code and say ‘throughout the season, you stay within your bubble’? That’s something for the FIA to consider.”

Hulkenberg, meanwhile, will have the chance to break an unwanted landmark this weekend. The German’s 177 Grand Prix starts make him the 25th-most experienced F1 driver, but he has famously never achieved a podium.

Racing Point, third in the constructors’ championship, clearly have a fast car at Silverstone, with Lance Stroll quickest in second practice yesterday. Hulkenberg was seventh, six-tenths of a second behind his team-mate.