MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — If you are waiting on Max Verstappen to be stressed, or freak out, or, like every other racer in the history of automobiles, become obsessively concerned about the next generation suddenly filling up his rearview mirrors, well, you can keep on waiting. Because he’s not doing any of that.
On Friday morning, the 27-year-old four-time defending Formula 1 world champion strolled into the Miami Grand Prix paddock looking not like a two-time winner of this race, or the victor of 64 F1 events. As he politely navigated photographers and fans, you would have no idea that he had just welcomed a newborn daughter. And as he glided into an infield cabana for a sit-down interview, one would have no clue that he was doing so amid swirling rumors of unhappiness at Red Bull, because he has won “only” one of the five races run this season and is ranked “only” third in the championship standings, behind the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris — touted as the youth movement of the sport, but only three and two years younger than Verstappen, respectively.
No, he just looked like a guy in the garage, exactly where he is supposed to be, where he has been his entire life, but now with more perspective than ever about where he really is.
“You just try to do the best you can. We are not the fastest team at the moment. We’re trying to be as competitive as we can be, but at the end of the day, it’s not going to change my life in any way,” Verstappen said, not dismissively but matter-of-factly, when asked about the chatter about Red Bull’s perceived struggles that only the day before had team boss Christian Horner frustratedly declaring: “Where the headlines come from is sometimes difficult to understand.”
On the perpetually heat-glowed titanium intensity of the F1 grid, the understated tone of Horner’s No. 1 driver is equally difficult for those around him to understand — especially when he is lapping them again. Likewise for the billions who consume the sport on television, be it live events or streaming reality shows, and believe they know who the real Max is. (Spoiler alert: He says they do not, and he also says he does not care.)
But even now, when running away with checkered flags isn’t as easy as it has been, somehow his demeanor, no matter how misunderstood, has indeed become more easygoing.
“I come here, do the best I can, go home, do other stuff, then go to the next race, try to do the best I can and go home again,” he says with a bit of a shrug. “So, for me, there’s not a lot of extra pressure or whatever. When I’m at home, I’m not actively thinking, ‘Oh, like I’m P3 in the championship, I need to do something!’ Or ‘What can I do?!’ Like, true experience over the years, you know what to do and what not to do. And just divide your energy also, a bit into other things, which you know that are also part of your life. Because at the end of the day, Formula 1 is not your whole life. It’s just small part.”
The easy hot take on such a statement is that it is the voice of a new father, his neurochemistry instantly altered by the arrival of his first child with longtime girlfriend Kelly Piquet, daughter Lily, born in Monaco this week.
But his rivals know better. Verstappen’s chillness is nothing new. It has always run counter to his hammer-down temperament on the racetrack, though even those who know him well have noticed an uptick in his downplayed tone. A trend that had already seemed to be shifting into a higher gear barely 24 hours before Lily was born.
See: A question that leaned a little into that talk that had Horner so irritated on Thursday. How much longer is Verstappen going to do this? There’s no way he’ll be like friend Fernando Alonso, still racing at the age of 43 as the 20th anniversary of his first F1 title approaches, right?
“No,” Verstappen said to that idea, chuckling.
“I have a contract until 2028, so for sure until then, after that, it also just depends a bit on what kind of projects are around or not, if it’s interesting or not,” said the man who owns teams in GT3, rally and virtual racing. “After winning my first championship [in 2021], everything that comes next is a bonus, and that’s really how I see it.
“I will do it as long as I enjoy it and I can relate myself to the sport how I want to. As long as I enjoy it, really, that’s it. Enjoy it. And, you know, finding it OK to leave the family behind.”
See also his willingness to praise championship leader Piastri, who turned 24 just last month and has won three of this year’s five races and earned all five of his career victories in the past nine months. After finishing second to the Australian in Saudi Arabia, Verstappen said of Piastri, “He’s in his third year, and he’s very solid. He’s very calm in his approach, and I like that. It shows on track. He delivers when he has to, barely makes mistakes, and that’s what you need when you want to fight for a championship.”
In case you aren’t familiar with how race car drivers work, heaping praise onto one with whom you are in one of those championship fights? Yeah, that’s not super typical. But it’s also the sign of a racer who, not so long ago the youngster party-crashing veteran title bouts, is now the wise old veteran himself.
“When people ask me a question and I want to answer it, I’m going to answer it in my own way, and I’m always honest and open and quite direct, I guess. But that’s just how I am, you know,” Verstappen says attempting to dodge the “Do you enjoy your graduation into the wise old paddock sage?” angle of the question, but then sounding like, yes, a wise old paddock sage.
“I have a lot of respect for the young guys that also came into the sport, and Oscar is doing a great job, and I don’t feel like you need to try and hide that. It’s not a weakness. And also, for me, it doesn’t matter if you talk positive or negative about a guy. Like, it’s not going to change how I approach my race weekend anyway, right? But you know, you can hand out credits when it’s due.”
As a young racer who becomes a legend, you also remember those who were good to you back in the day. And you really remember those who weren’t, right?
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Max Verstappen opens up about his future in F1
Max Verstappen speaks openly about his future in the sport of Formula One when his contract is up with Red Bull in 2028.
“You know, a lot of drivers that still are in a paddock or around the paddock, I think it’s nice, you know? When you build up a good relationship between the drivers.”
If that reads like a group hug, like a sudden lack of killer instinct, then it reads wrong. Hearing it aloud, he still sounds like Max Verstappen, the third-winningest racer in the 75-year history of Formula 1. The man who trails only the holy F1 triumvirate of Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio when it comes to championships won.
Only now, he sounds like a man who has figured out what so many others in his chosen profession never have: work-life balance. A man we have watched grow up before our very eyes, determined to dial in that perfect personal setup just as he has done with so many racing machines over the years.
“I’ve been thinking about that already, for a long time.”
