Max Verstappen’s girlfriend, Kelly Piquet, has responded to critics of the couple’s nine-year age gap with a post on social media.
Four-time F1 champion Verstappen has been in a relationship with Piquet since 2020, but the pair reportedly met several years earlier, which was apparent in a recent social media post.
In recent days, a trend has emerged with social media users posting photographs of themselves from 2016.
Piquet, who is the mother to Verstappen’s daughter Lily, who was born in May 2025, joined in with the trend and posted a black and white photograph of herself alongside the Red Bull man.
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"Met this guy [in 2016]... the very next day he told me I was the love of his life,” read the caption.
“Little did I know 10 years later we'd be celebrating five years together and have a perfect baby girl.
"PS: I absolutely did not have a magical night that night (laughing emoji), but there was serendipity in the air."
Since then, thousands of users have commented on the post, with some being critical of the pair’s nine-year age gap.
One claimed: “When she was 27 in 2016, Max was 18.”
While another leapt to her defence: “Kelly Piquet clarified that NOTHING happened between her and Max Verstappen in 2016 when Max was 19 (not 17 like some haters with a lack of math skills), try to claim. Yet I still see people hating on her, just proving they’ll hate no matter what. Jealousy, I guess.”
Then Piquet responded to the initial comment saying that “he [Verstappen] was already 19, but yeah, so what”.
The couple reportedly first met in Monaco back in 2016, with Piquet, who is the daughter of three-time F1 championship winner Nelson Piquet, previously dating former driver Daniil Kvyat, with whom she has a daughter called Penelope.
And given the fact that Verstappen and his partner have now been together for half a decade, question marks about a potential wedding are never far away.
When asked about marriage by Swiss outlet Blick in 2025, Verstappen replied: “Not yet, but it will probably happen soon.”
But for now, the 28-year-old will, no doubt, be looking ahead to the 2026 F1 campaign that gets underway in Melbourne, Australia, in March.
The campaign will be the first in four years that the Dutchman has not entered as the reigning champion after finishing second behind McLaren’s Lando Norris in 2025.
Topics: Max Verstappen, Formula 1, Red Bull Racing
Luke Davies