The Story
Nearly a third of the Formula 1 grid took part on a group vacation between races in Azerbaijan and Malaysia.
Instagram / @georgerussell63Formula 1 drivers tend to fiercely guard their privacy—especially when it comes to what they do between races, away from the Drive to Survive cameras. Unusually, though, the world learned this week what seven of them got up to on a boys’ holiday between the Azerbaijan and Bahrain GPs, largely thanks to Instagram posts from George Russell.
Drivers often club together to share private jets, especially those who live in Monaco and fly in and out of Nice to many of the races. The busy F1 calendar suggested to most of them that there was little point in going home between the Baku and Sepang races, and thus five of them—Russell, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, and Ollie Bearman—decided to share a flight to Malaysia.
“I think we all sometimes message each other to join in each other’s flights, because also it’s a bit more efficient economical-wise when you share planes,” said Carlos Sainz when asked about the trip by Road & Track. “And obviously, for the global environment, it’s better to fly more people together than do their own thing.”.
Somewhere along the way, however, the plan changed from flying straight to Kuala Lumpur—a busy, noisy megacity—to going somewhere with a bit more peace and quiet. The group decided to head to Langkawi, an island off the coast of Malaysia with a population of just 85,000.
“I think I saw that there were drivers trying to get on a flight to Malaysia from Baku on Saturday night,” said Sainz. “And rather than flying straight to Kuala Lumpur, I offered, why don’t we go somewhere else?. And I found a hotel on an island to spend four or five days that looked really nice to have good cycling, good gym. And I said, ‘Why don’t . Instead of all flying to Kuala Lumpur for four days, that it’s more of a city, less fun to do for us at least . Why don’t we fly to this nice resort?’ I offered it, and everyone was like, ‘Yo, let’s do it!’ And we all jumped on that plane on Saturday night, and we flew [to] Baku-Lankawi. Probably no one has ever flown from Baku to Langkawi; it’s like the most random flight ever…”.
Oscar Piastri and Gabriel Bortoleto had their own flight, and they agreed to divert and meet up with the others. While several of the drivers are close friends—Norris has, after all, been teammates with both Sainz and Piastri—actually going on vacation together was something new. (Being of a different generation, Bearman and Bortoleto were not as close to their older colleagues.) But for all concerned, it proved to be a fun weekend as they hung out and shared activities such as cycling and karting.
“Well, normally in race weekends, we never see each other,” said Sainz. “I never see all the guys that I got to spend time with because we all have our own commitments. So, very rarely you actually get to spend some proper time with them. And the island we went to was quite fun, because it was a small island, and they put seven drivers on an island and see how what they end up doing. It was a bit of a social experiment, for sure.”.
Sainz enjoyed getting close to those he didn’t know as well: “I personally got to meet a lot more characters, or some drivers that I didn’t know, and I got to see their story—where they come from, how they end up being the way they are a bit, and why. And getting to bond also a bit with them, and getting to understand them a bit better. And for me, it was a very cool experience. I think I think we all left there quite happy with how it went.”.
“It’s a very unique situation, because we’re competitors,” said Russell when asked by Road & Track. “But you’re traveling the world on the same schedule. There’s no other sport in the world that the top twenty-two [competitors] of a given sport are in the same place at the same time, competing on the same day. So yeah, it was just a unique opportunity for us. We had a good laugh. The five of us had a funny flight over on Saturday night, and they were helping me to celebrate the win.”.
Piastri and Bortoleto weren’t part of that group, but they met the others in Langkawi. "It was pretty last minute,” said Piastri. “But it was good fun, just being able to switch off from racing a bit. It’s very rare that you get so many drivers together, actually spending time together away from a race track. And at the end of the day, we’re twenty-two guys that love racing—and obviously, it’s a bit tricky to talk about certain things because we are racing each other. But we’ve got a lot in common that we just never really get to talk about. So it was quite nice. We all did our own separate things at points, it wasn’t that we were glued to each other for the whole time. Maybe on the go-kart track we were!. It was it was good fun, honestly.”.
“I don’t think ‘competitive’ is the right word,” said Sainz. “because at one point no one cared about winning at all. Everyone cared about who could be more. Chaotic, let’s say. So yeah, there was a track. We, in the end, invented another track that didn’t exist—some interesting racing lines that I’m pretty sure the stewards wouldn’t have been very happy with. And some racing incidents that, let’s say, it was nice to see how a group of seven F1 drivers without rules, a world of F1 drivers without rules would end up being like. It was interesting, to say the least.”.
Why It Matters
“I think we all sometimes message each other to join in each other’s flights, because also it’s a bit more efficient economical-wise when you share planes,” said Carlos Sainz when asked about the trip by Road & Track.
CarMotion Daily’s Take
Instagram / @georgerussell63Formula 1 drivers tend to fiercely guard their privacy—especially when it comes to what they do between races, away from the Drive to Survive cameras. The detail bears tracking. The racing calendar rarely gives a team a quiet week — every result reshuffles development priorities. Sponsors and factory programmes pay close attention; a single result can shift allocation for the rest of the season. Lap-time deltas, tyre strategy, and any in-season upgrades are the metrics worth following next. Championship standings and factory allocation signals usually follow within a race or two.
📝 Source & Copyright Notice
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