“What Did She Just Say?!”: Max Verstappen’s Bad Habits Rub Off On 5-Year-Old Penelope Piquet

Kelly Piquet’s daughter Penelope and Max Verstappen absolutely adore each other as the five-year-old looks up to the Dutchman as a father figure. Although Verstappen now has the added responsibility of guiding Penelope, he may have unintentionally taught Piquet’s daughter a bad habit.

A clip from a TV series based on the Dutchman – Max Verstappen – Off the Beaten Track – surfaced on X (formerly Twitter). In the clip, the three-time champion discussed with his father Jos Verstappen how Penelope used a curse word in front of his Grandmother as the cats were jumping around the house.

a new clip from off the beaten track! max’s look of embarrassment mentioning what happened with p pic.twitter.com/yftF8fMCdG

— nini (@SCUDERIAFEMBOY) July 28, 2024

In the clip, Verstappen said, “Grandma was at our place in Monaco and she was with Penelope. All of a sudden the cats started to jump weirdly. Then, Penelope says, ‘What the f*** are the cats doing?’. And Grandma has that look like, ‘Oh. What did she just say?’”

Verstappen went on to explain how Penelope hears him saying the same, which is why she must have picked up this bad habit of swearing. The Dutchman recently grabbed the headlines for his frustrating explicit radio messages at the Hungarian GP.

Verstappen slammed the team’s strategy, the upgraded car, and anything and everything that went against him that day. As a result, some experts claimed that Verstappen’s habit of late-night sim racing may have affected his demeanor on the race track. However, Verstappen hit back at his critics and told them to “f*** off“.

Verstappen’s Hungarian GP radio triggers directive for F1 drivers

Lewis Hamilton came out after the Hungarian GP and suggested Verstappen to behave like a world champion. The Briton’s comments came in light of Verstappen’s visible frustration with the Red Bull team after their poor strategy and underperforming car in Budapest.

A couple of days after the race at the Hungaroring, an FIA commission meeting took place in London. Stefano Domenicali was present at the meeting and reportedly asked the team bosses to ask their drivers to keep their language in check on the radios. 

F1 drivers are deemed role models by many, especially the youngsters. While the broadcast censors the filters of the explicit words, it still doesn’t leave a good impression on the younger generation. The directive is believed to have been issued because of Verstappen’s elaborate use of F-bombs on the radio to express his frustrations at the Hungarian GP.