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9-Year Age Difference With Kelly Piquet the Secret to Max Verstappen’s Success, According to IndyCar Champion in the Same Situation

Naman Gopal Srivastava
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9-Year Age Difference With Kelly Piquet the Secret to Max Verstappen’s Success, According to IndyCar Champion in the Same Situation

One of the most controversial aspects in the life of Max Verstappen has been his relationship with Kelly Piquet. With many reasons contributing to the aspect, a major angle has been the vast age difference between the two. While most people question the relationship, Alex Palou claims it might be the reason behind the Dutchman’s incredible success while appearing on a podcast by the YouTube channel ‘The Red Flags Podcast.’

Palou is no stranger to having a stark age difference in relationships himself. Sharing a relationship with Esther Valle since he was 17, the IndyCar driver has kept most details about his relationship with Valle a secret. In fact, the couple has not even disclosed when they married each other, as Palou only recently started addressing his Spanish partner as his wife.

Much like Verstappen, Palou is also an accomplished driver, having won the GP3 series and the National Championship in American open-wheel racing. As such, it is only fair for him to assume Piquet brings good luck to Verstappen despite the age difference, much like Valle does for him.

Palou supports Max Verstappen-Kelly Piquet’s relationship

Both Palou and Verstappen are dominant drivers in their respective sports. They are almost the same age, too, putting them in the same age group. There is one more thing that’s common between the two drivers, and that is that they both have older partners.

During his time on ‘The Red Flags Podcast,’ Palou was asked a question about the impact of having older partners by host Matt Elisofon.

Matt- “You both have older partners. Is that the secret?”

Alex- “Yes. I think so; experience.”

Belonging to a racing family, Kelly Piquet understands what it takes to be a professional racing driver. She also knows the sacrifices one has to make in order to continue racing at the top level. As such, she might be the perfect partner for Verstappen, who is on the precipice of his third consecutive driver’s world title.

Palou does not want his kids to race, much like Verstappen

Speaking in the same podcast, Palou revealed he is expecting a child in November with his wife. Discussing what he would want their children to do in the future, the Spaniard snubbed the possibility of him wanting his kids to become racers. Revealing that his forthcoming child will be a girl, Palou said if she wanted to become a racer, he wouldn’t stop her, but ideally, he would not want her to race.

Coincidentally, Verstappen also made similar statements earlier this year when talking about wanting to have children of his own in the future. The 25-year-old admitted he wouldn’t stop his kids from racing if they wanted to but added he would want to do things much differently than the way his father did.

For now, Verstappen’s focus is on being the best driver he can be as he drives towards an inevitable third-consecutive world championship.

About the author

Naman Gopal Srivastava

Naman Gopal Srivastava

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Naman is an F1 writer at The SportsRush. Initially a football fanatic who worships Puyol and Leo Messi, Naman soon fell in love with the world of F1 upon reading about Jim Clarke. While the current era drivers do fascinate him, Naman still chooses to idolize Clarke and Ayrton Senna. When he is not busy watching the highlights of some of the greatest races of his idols, Naman can be found scribbling little snippets in his diary of poems or out in the town, exploring new places to eat.

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