Max Verstappen interview: On fatherhood, Red Bull's slide and the road ahead

New York Times

3 days ago

This spring, the world learned how Max Verstappen's life changed, though not as drastically as some may have assumed.
The Dutchman and his partner, Kelly Piquet, announced the birth of their daughter, Lily, ahead of the 2025 Miami Grand Prix. Considering Lily is his first child, the new chapter in the reigning world champion's life triggered questions about how it might affect his performance. After securing pole position a day later in Miami, Verstappen joked, 'Clearly it didn't make me slower, being a dad.'
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Adjusting to having a newborn hasn't been a shock, Verstappen told The Athletic in an interview at Red Bull's hospitality building during the subsequent Austrian GP weekend. Compared to how his FIA news conference appearances can seem tense at times, he was relaxed as he discussed this new chapter. Having a young kid around isn't actually new for him, as he's been in the life of Penelope — Piquet and former F1 driver Daniil Kvyat's daughter — since she was one year old.
'You get to understand how to live with a little one,' Verstappen said, 'and I think that has prepared me quite well for my own little girl.'
But racing is the only life he's known. Verstappen comes from a racing family: his mother, Sophie, competed in karting until her initial retirement in the 1990s, and his father, Jos, became an F1 driver. The elder Verstappen still races in rally. Max became used to seeing Jos leave for a race weekend and admits he was 'quite upset about it because I wanted to join, but it also makes you understand what you have to do.' Sophie, meanwhile, took 'care of things at home.' And Piquet saw a similar dynamic in her own family with father Nelson being a three-time F1 world champion.
'It's all very natural,' Verstappen said. 'It helps a lot.'
There are two big lessons he's taken from his childhood: finding free time in everyday life and having an understanding partner. Knowing Verstappen is an F1 driver is different from knowing what that entails and 'what you have to do for it to be competitive and successful.' As for that free time outside of racing, it takes meticulous planning, between the 24 F1 race weekends a year, recent GT3 tests at Germany's Nürburgring Nordschleife and Belgium's Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, and managing his own sim racing and sportscar team. The latter two have long been goals, particularly for his post-F1 life.
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Over the last year, speculation has swirled around whether Verstappen might retire early. He's contracted with Red Bull through 2028 (though there's plenty of discourse around whether he'll stay), but it hasn't stopped the rumor mill. At least in interviews with The Athletic, it doesn't seem like the Dutchman has a set year or even age in mind on when he'll leave the pinnacle of motorsport and move on to a different venture. To him, it ultimately boils down to whether he can give 100 percent and still have fun doing so.
'People sometimes hang around maybe to create more money, but at the end of the day, that doesn't come first. It's important you're here because of the hunger to win,' Verstappen said. 'Some people come here to just get the best out of their car because some don't have a winning car. But that's why I think: as long as I can do that, and I'm working with the people that I enjoy working with, then, yeah, we'll drive.
'I don't know when that will stop. Is that 32? Is that 35? 36? I don't know. It's impossible to know.'
Verstappen will be 31 years old by the end of the 2028 season — 14 years in F1, after starting at 17 years old. By comparison, Lewis Hamilton is currently 40 years old with 19 years in F1, while Fernando Alonso is 43 with 22 seasons.
But the conversation on retirement is more than just age. 'I feel like I'm already missing out so much on just being with my family,' Verstappen said before listing out his parents and siblings, as well as his friends.
'I spend holidays with them, but I really miss the moments of just casually rocking up for a weekend or just hanging out on the couch, sitting together on a lazy day, or just after a normal work day,' Verstappen explained. 'We live quite far apart now, (so) these kinds of moments are not possible with my life. I hope one day that it can go back to that.'
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The last time he had a normal life moment like he had described, the 27-year-old said it was during his karting days. His life changed when he made the move to single-seater cars, straight into racing in Formula Three — at the age of 16 in 2014.
Throughout his various career chapters, he's consistently enjoyed success and raised the bar compared to his rivals. He is the youngest driver to make an F1 debut, at 17, and the FIA then introduced a minimum age requirement for drivers. He won his first F1 race during his first grand prix weekend with Red Bull, after spending his first season and four more races at its junior team, and he holds the record for the most consecutive F1 wins (10). But this year is new, as Red Bull endures a downturn in performance.
And considering that trailing McLaren is far from where it was in the dominant 2023 season, or even last year when Verstappen secured his fourth consecutive world championship, and how his personal and non-F1 racing life is evolving, it begs the question: even without winning consistently, is he still having fun?
'I'm having enough fun, yes,' Verstappen answered. 'Some bits are not fun, but the most important thing that I enjoy is driving the car. And that is fun.'
Being a Red Bull driver nowadays, though, may not look like fun from the outside.
The Milton Keynes-based team went from making F1 history in 2023 with winning 21 of 22 grands prix and securing 15 consecutive victories that year to now racing with a not-so-competitive car (by the top teams' standards) and sitting fourth in the constructor standings. It faces a 288-point gap to McLaren that could steadily grow during the second half of the season.
Verstappen has scored 165 of the team's 172 points, as of the British Grand Prix weekend, and his last win was in May: The Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. His last podium finish came in Canada, with second place to Mercedes' George Russell, and the Briton had commented afterwards that 'I don't really know how Max and I are so close to those two (McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri ) because they clearly have the most dominant car.'
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It's a statement that Verstappen didn't entirely echo when speaking with The Athletic the following weekend in Austria. 'It's close but also not,' he said. 'What is it? Forty points or something? It's a lot. It's almost two races, so a lot needs to happen for us to be in that fight. I feel like we're just hanging in there, not really making big strides.'
The gap at that time was 21 points to Norris and 43 to championship leader Piastri. After the two additional races at the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone, where the McLaren duo secured consecutive 1-2 finishes, Verstappen now sits 69 points behind Piastri and 61 points from second-place Norris. With F1's car design regulations set to change in 2026, teams are starting to shift their focus to next year's challenger, which will make it harder to find car performance gains in 2025. Christian Horner said after the British GP that '90 percent of the focus is now on' that project for his now-former team.
So what does Verstappen find fun about F1 right now?
'Working with all the incredibly talented and smart people within the team, pushing myself in the car to get the best out of it, and the competition, naturally, with all the other drivers. Just trying to win at the end of the day,' Verstappen said.
'And of course, if you really have no chance to win anymore and I have to drive in the midfield, then fun will disappear very quickly.'
Success isn't a guarantee; one day, the wins do stop. Despite Verstappen wanting to continue winning, he has learned to accept that this is not the case currently and to work through it with his team. Otherwise, that relationship might be disrupted, which could impact a driver's performance and lead to overdriving in the car. That doesn't mean Verstappen hasn't had his moments where he's not been thrilled, but he knows shouting won't work.
'If I'm getting upset with things, and they hear me being upset with things, it also does something with them, because they're like, 'Oh, Max is angry, we cannot approach him,' or they start to also be a bit tense,' Verstappen explained.
'And you have to try and be motivating, supporting, which is not always easy when you have been dominating as a team and then you're dropping back a bit.'
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Given Red Bull's performance downturn, it has prompted repeated questions of whether Verstappen will race for the team next season. But there's an added wrinkle to the 2026 drivers market: the change in regulations. The pecking order won't become apparent until the cars hit the track next winter and spring, with teams facing 'a massive change.' It's not just the engines that are changing: the cars are becoming slightly more nimble, and fuel will consist of sustainable alternatives. As Verstappen said: 'It's a big question mark for everyone.'
'For me, you just hope that you're with the right team, and … I don't (want) to say 'luck in' — but in a way, you do 'luck in' because if you're a good driver and suddenly your team steps up, then you know that you have a winning chance,' he said. 'That's how F1 works.'
The noise continues to grow around him and Red Bull. But since he was little, he's been able to tune it out — so much so that Verstappen said Jos 'initially thought I was always a bit too relaxed about it in the past when I was a kid.' The approach to handling criticism boils down to, as he put it, 'I don't care.'
'I know what I have done to get here,' he added. 'I've known what I have achieved already in this sport, and I focus on myself, the people close to me. The team and family. I do what I have to do on track, and then, besides that, just live my life outside of it with all my passions. And with my family (too). For me, I don't let it distract me (from) what I'm doing here.'
Verstappen described this chapter of his life as 'something that when you're younger, you dream of.' He has become a generational talent and is navigating one of the most successful F1 careers in history. But his aspirations extend beyond F1, to having a managerial-type role — and he's had an eye on endurance racing as another chapter of his driving career.
'I'm just very happy that it's all possible. Financially, it's basically making it all happen. And at the same time, also giving young drivers a chance,' Verstappen said. 'My dream is of having a sim driver move into the real world and making it a success story, and seeing him progress, and seeing him evolve into a better driver. And also, hopefully, in the long-term, make him basically a professional driver. That he can make his living off it.
'That is the goal, and that's something that slowly we're making ways in.'
In recent months, Verstappen has seen his role as team owner merge with endurance racing, as in 2025 his team is entering an Aston Martin GT3 car in the 2025 GT World Challenge Europe championship, which includes the famous 24 Hours of Spa race. Verstappen himself participated in GT3 tests at the Nürburgring Nordschleife and Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps to help with its preparations. GT3 cars are built for the long haul — heavier machines that can withstand hours on the circuit. During the test at the Nürburgring, he set an unofficial lap record of the fearsome track for GT3 cars, but used a pseudonym (Franz Hermann) to give himself a calmer, more normal start to the day that he desired. He knew that if his name was on the entry list, people would show up early to watch, and he 'didn't want to make it such a big fuss.'
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Verstappen says that, if he could, he would choose to be 'unknown in the world, but that's not possible anymore.'
The purpose of Verstappen being at that test wasn't to break a record but rather to help Emil Frey Racing's squad that he collaborates with to run his team learn the track. His manager's son, Thierry Vermeulen, races for the team. The Nürburgring Nordschleife is a flowing, very long track with multiple types of corners, and Verstappen said, 'It's just actually so crazy that this is allowed and that it's still existing.' The Nürburgring Nordschleife was once part of the F1 calendar, but given the layout's complex nature and limited run-off areas, it was deemed too dangerous for the speeds and downforce of modern F1 cars.
'I just had a lot of fun in the forest, as well,' Verstappen said. 'To me, it's not intimidating — but I can understand that it is very intimidating initially, and for me, good experience as a racing driver. It's just a lot of fun to push yourself on such an iconic track to the limit.'
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A month later, he tackled Spa in a car fielded by his team, Verstappen.com Racing. This test was 'more for myself,' Verstappen said during the Austrian GP FIA news conference, adding how he hasn't 'really driven the Aston that much up until that point. It was very early in the season, so I just wanted to get a bit more experience for myself. The guys, of course, are racing it, preparing for the 24 Hours (of Spa). But it's more for me to get more of an understanding of what we can do with the car setup-wise and (for) development.'
Driving an F1 car through the Ardennes forest versus a GT3 car is 'very different,' he later told The Athletic. He said 'nothing comes close' to doing a qualifying lap in an F1 car around that track.
But these outings have given him a taste of what his future could look like. Verstappen doesn't anticipate that he'll race 'a flat-out program' once he leaves F1, but endurance racing and diving more into the managerial world will most likely be his next chapter. Coaching other drivers has helped him 'learn even more about the car and engineering,' which involves speaking to the engineering team more frequently than a driver typically does alone.
But what he's learned the most is patience.
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Verstappen is known for his direct communication style, something that the drivers he works with are aware of. He'll share what is going right and what needs work, and that's how one improves, because 'if you can't be honest to each other or critical, then it's not going to work, because I think it's important that you can handle criticism even in the toughest of times.'
And the same concept applies to Verstappen. Everyone can grow, regardless of how accomplished an athlete is. Even with four world championships and numerous F1 records to his name, Verstappen believes that there are still ways he can improve.
That's the fun of motorsport. The ever-changing cars create an unpredictable constant in drivers' lives and competitors evolve as well. Every season presents a fresh challenge, one that Verstappen still finds enjoyable as his family grows.
He acknowledged that 'being fully comfortable' isn't an option — there's always room for growth.
'I think that's why you never stop learning.'
(Top image: Will Tullos/The Athletic/)