Cats and Kelly Piquet’s Daughter Not Allowed When Max Verstappen Takes on Some Serious Racing at Home

Max Verstappen is a severe racing addict. Away from the racing track, he resorts to his sim, doing online racing, but he claims he hardly plays the F1 game in his leisure time.

He tries to give a hand in other racing series. So that he gains some experience in car handling for every motorsport. Considering he believes that every online game is now near to perfect for real-life racing, it helps him to gain experience in other cars.

From this weekend, Verstappen will participate in Le Mans virtual racing. And he definitely wants to win it after his last year’s mistake, which cost him and his team the win.

Also read: Kimi Raikkonen nearly joined Red Bull before signing for Ferrari in 2014

Cats and Kelly Piquet’s daughter not allowed

Verstappen treats his sim setup as one of his prized assets. Why not? He has spent around $35,000 on it. Usually, he is a bit relaxed with his pets all over his home.

But once he does some competitive racing on his sim, his two pet cats are not allowed in his room. Not even Kelly Piquet’s daughter Penelope is permitted to be near him.

“During practice days, yes,” reveals Verstappen that he always gets distracted on the sim. “I have two cats, and they’re always running around. My girlfriend has a daughter, and sometimes she might tap me on the shoulder. But on race day, I ensure no one is interfering.”

Max Verstappen with Penelope is the cutest thing in the world (+with her armbands) 🥰 pic.twitter.com/9f8sqBmHyA

— catッ (@eyoyeq) August 18, 2022

He claims that he closes the door of his room on such days and has made a 10-metre radius as the boundary. Nobody is strictly allowed inside that periphery.

Max Verstappen seeking Le Mans redemption

Last year also Verstappen vied in the virtual Le Mans race. However, in the game’s final phase, he crashed, and his team got DNFd while they were at a considerable advantage.

It’s one of the regrets Verstappen is still holding. But it’s known that once the Dutchman gets competitive, it’s hard to stop him from quashing his opponents. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc are the biggest testaments to that.

In his recent interview with the Washington Post, Verstappen has told how eager he is to win this year’s virtual version of the historic race. Whether he’ll win will be known by Sunday.

Also read: Charles Leclerc admits sadness over Carlos Sainz not calling him to his house for dinner

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Read More