Max Verstappen has announced that he and long-term partner Kelly Piquet are expecting their first child together. The newly-crowned four-time F1 world champion took to Instagram on Friday morning to make the announcement.
He posted a picture of his and Piquet’s hands joined together with the caption: “Mini Verstappen-Piquet on the way [heart emoji]. We couldn’t be happier with our little miracle.” The same picture was also posted to Piquet’s personal account.
Piquet – a 35-year-old Brazilian model whose father, Nelson, is a three-time F1 world champion – began dating Verstappen just over four years ago. She has a five-year-old child, Penelope, from a prior relationship with ex-F1 driver Daniel Kvyat, while Verstappen, 27, has no children of his own.
Verstappen opened up on his relationship with Penelope last year, telling TIME: “I’m not the father, that’s not the aim. It has always been very important that she has a good relationship with her own father, which she has. But I see her every day when I’m at home. We get on very well. She’s very cute.”
Piquet’s pregnancy gives Red Bull driver Verstappen an added motivation to round off the season in style this weekend. He already has the Drivers’ Championship sewn up heading into Abu Dhabi, with three times as many Grand Prix wins this season as anyone else.
The Dutchman will also be keen to reaffirm his dominance after a week of fighting talk with Mercedes star George Russell. The pair clashed in the stewards’ room in Qatar last weekend, where Verstappen was handed a one-place grid penalty for an impeding infringement in qualifying.
A seething Verstappen then told Russell that he would ‘put him on his f***ing head in the wall’ to win the race if he had to, according to the Mercedes man.
Verstappen denies saying those words, while Russell insisted he had ‘gone personal’ and ‘crossed the line’. He added: “I’m not going to stand for it from someone who thinks he’s above the law.
“He said he would put me on my f***ing head. Somebody has to stand up to a guy like this before it gets out of control. I’ve known him for 12 years and now I’ve lost respect for him. People have let him get away with murder. He can’t deal with adversity. Whenever things aren’t going his way he lashes out with anger and violence.”
